West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice has taken a swipe at Lyon striker Moussa Dembele and the French club's Twitter admin, following their 4-1 aggregate win in the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
After drawing the first leg 1-1 at the London Stadium last week, goals from Rice, Craig Dawson and Jarrod Bowen secured a comfortable 3-0 second-leg win for the Hammers at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais on Thursday night, sending them through to their first European semi-final since 1976.
Speaking to BT Sport in his post-match interview, Rice revealed that there were "a few incentives" for West Ham to get one over their French counterparts, who suggested on their Twitter account that the tie was already over, while the midfielder also mocked Dembele for winking in the first leg after Aaron Cresswell was sent off.
"I feel like if you can't get up for these games, then you shouldn't be playing football. The roar from the warm-up was spine-tingling really, really gives you that fire in your stomach to go out there and perform," said the England international.
"And there were a few incentives tonight for us to go out there and win, obviously Dembele winking in the first leg at the camera, and then [Lyon's] Twitter admin somehow saying how they don't see how they're not going to get through. So them things come back to bite you.
"We stayed quiet, put in a performance and now West Ham are in the semis – what more do we want?"
Rice has since taken to Twitter to mock Lyon's tweet which they posted on Monday, with a short caption stating: "This aged well".
This aged well😂👍 https://t.co/oYNOAE4DzK
— Declan Rice (@_DeclanRice) April 14, 2022
West Ham have also got involved on their Twitter account by posting a video of Dembele's wink with the 'Hello Darkness My Old Friend' meme music playing in the background as well as a miniature image of Rice appearing in the corner.
— West Ham United (@WestHam) April 14, 2022
David Moyes's men will now take on Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt in the last four, with the first leg to take place at the London Stadium on April 28, before the Hammers travel to Germany for the second leg on May 5.
Oliver Thomas
