Emerson provided an assist in a 2-1 win for West Ham over the Belgian side in midweek that ensured they qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa Conference League.
West Ham were leading by two goals, but Anderlecht pulled one back just as the 90 minutes were coming to an end, and the Hammers endured an edgy injury time before sealing the win.
Emerson is happy that West Ham got the win but thinks it was sloppy on the Hammers’ part near the end and stressed they should learn to control the flow of the game even while comfortably winning.
The West Ham star sees no reason why the Hammers cannot go all the way, and on a personal level he wants to add the Europa Conference League trophy to his already formidable European collection.
Speaking to West Ham TV post-match, Emerson said: “We did very well, but in the end we started to lose too many balls in the midfield and up front and we need to learn to control the game more because, although we did well, we don’t need to suffer and we suffered in the end when they scored one goal and the last six or seven minutes were hard, but we did well and we won.
“Why can’t we go all the way? I won some things in Europe – the Champions League, the Europa League, the European Championship with the national team – so I just miss the Conference League!
“We can do this, but we need to work hard to arrive there step by step.”
West Ham reached the semi-finals of the Europa League last season and this term they will be hoping to do even better in their current European campaign.
