The Hammers, who trailed 2-1 from last week’s first leg, had a Cheikhou Kouyate brace to thank for putting them on course for a victory in their opening match at their new Olympic Stadium home.
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They began life at their new ground in fine style earlier this week as they secured their progression in the Europa League with an impressive win over NK Domzale.
The newly-anointed London Stadium welcomed its long-term tenants exactly four years to the day since London 2012’s Super Saturday – when Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis-Hill and Greg Rutherford all took gold in front of their home fans.
“We’re not going to go over the moon because of the level of the opponent, but for a stage like this, we played really good”, said Bilic, whose side will learn their play-off round opponents in today’s draw.
Davide Santon has flown to London to undergo a West Ham medical and finalise a move to the club, according to a report.
Slaven Bilic was without Euro 2016 stars Dimitri Payet, James Collins and Angelo Ogbonna and together with injuries to Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini, it showed up some shortfall in the squad.
Last night, settling into their new home, West Ham may have only cleared the first hurdle but it was an encouraging start.
So this is the third time Santon tries to leave Inter this summer and we all hope that he will finally be able to join a team that would give him what he wants.
Bilic said: “It was a special kind of game for us, the first game at the new Stadium”.
“It was hard psychologically for us but for the stage we are at we played really good; we were fit, aggressive and played good football”.
“Domzale have had a few more competitive games than us, but if a team is braver, more hungry, then these things happen”.
“We can find excuses and were missing players, but we should have played much better. We don’t have a mountain to climb, but a job to do”.
Both Davide Santon of Inter Milan and Norwich’s Martin Olsson are reported targets but Bilic remained coy.
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“We have to be positive and I’m totally positive, the players are not afraid of it, they like it”.
