Families of West Ham United players were attacked by Dutch supporters following their Europa Conference League semi-final victory over AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night.
Pablo Fornals scored a stoppage-time goal that ensured the Hammers’ progress to their first European final for 47 years.
But chaos ensued as rival fans broke through a fence and attacked the area where families and friends of the English players were sitting.
According to Sky Sports, AZ hooligans ambushed visiting fans at the final whistle.
West Ham players celebrating on the pitch tried to intervene to defend their families and friends.
Police and stewards then leapt in to prevent things from escalating further, and order was restored after 10 minutes.
West Ham boss David Moyes, whose father was in the visitors’ reserved section, told BT Sport that his players were angry.
“We’ll need to wait for the dust to settle to see what it is, but the biggest problem is that is the area where the players have all their families in, friends and family,” he said.
“That is where the problem came and a lot of players were getting angry because they couldn’t get to see if they were okay. But look, I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and ask the officials what really happened.”
West Ham will now face Fiorentina in the final next month, with the Serie A outfit prevailing 4-3 on aggregate against Basel yesterday.
The Hammers’ last European final came in the 1975-76 Cup Winners’ Cup when Anderlecht beat them 4-2.
David Moyes’ side also came very close to making it to the Europa League final last season, but they lost 3-1 on aggregate to Eintracht Frankfurt in the semi-final.
However, they made no mistake this time and gave a solid defensive performance against AZ Alkmaar to progress to the final.
