West Ham United ready as possible for final says Fornals

West Ham United’s Pablo Fornals hopes a three-day warm-weather training camp in Portugal provides the perfect tonic for their Europa Conference League final appearance in Prague next week.

The Hammers flew out to the Algarve on Monday, having ended their Premier League campaign with a 2-1 loss at Leicester – their 20th defeat in 38 outings.

Spaniard Fornals netted his seventh goal of the season, as he made his third successive start in domestic competition, and says all eyes are now on Fiorentina as the club looks to claim a first piece of major silverware in 43 years.

“Hopefully it’s going to help us, I certainly think so,” he told whufc.com of the trip to Portugal.

“In the last months we’ve played every three days and most of the lads played Thursday-Sunday-Thursday-Sunday, so obviously it’s going to be a massive relax for us, but with a bit of work.

“After this period, we’ll try to prepare for the final as much as we can and be as ready as possible. 

“When you play these kind of games, you don’t need any extra motivation, because when you can win a final as a player it’s massive.

“As always, I try, but now we are a team and whoever plays in that game (the final) is going to give one thousand per cent.

“I know, if it’s not from the beginning, I will help the team in the position the manager asks me.”

Leicester needed a win to have any chance of avoiding relegation and saw Harvey Barnes and Wout Faes net either side of the break to give them hope.

But Everton’s win over Bournemouth condemned the Foxes to the drop alongside Leeds and Southampton, while Fornals’ goal was little consolation for David Moyes’ men as they finished in 14th place, six points from danger.

“The defenders were closing really so I think that was the only space I could shoot and the ball hit the post and when it happens you never know what can happen, but thank God it went in,” he added.

“At that moment, the only thing you don’t want is someone trying to tackle you or losing the ball or being caught, so I just went inside with determination and tried to find the angle for my shot.

“IWithout the last 10 or 15 minutes of the first half and the isolated goal we conceded in the second half from a free-kick, I think we were the better team on the pitch, but at the end what matters is goals and they scored twice and we scored once.

“But I think we did a very good game and if we play like that in the future games I think we’re going to have a lot of credit from that.

“Obviously, we can’t say anything to the supporters if they’re not happy [with 14th place] because obviously we’re not happy as well, but we’re going to play a final and this can change all the job we did in the season so we have to just try to be focused on that and make it possible.”