David Moyes was concerned for members of his family after AZ Alkmaar fans attempted to attack a section of West Ham’s support following their Europa Conference League semi-final win in the Netherlands. Pablo Fornals’ injury-time winner prompted a gang of black-shirted, hooded AZ ultras to attempt to storm into the area reserved for friends and family behind the dugout. Players including Michail Antonio, Said Benrahma, Aaron Cresswell and Flynn Downes climbed over the advertising hoardings in a bid to stop the trouble. Moyes, who’s 87-year-old father David Snr was at the match, said: “I can’t explain what happened and why it happened. “I can only only say the players were involved because it was the family section and most of their family and friends were in there. That was probably the reason for the reaction. “Was I worried? Yeah, my family were there and I had friends in that section. You’re hoping they would try and get themselves away from it. “I didn’t recognise it because I’d gone onto the pitch. Security wanted to take me inside, but I had to make sure my players weren’t involved. “What we don’t want to do is in any way blight the night because it certainly wasn’t West Ham supporters looking for trouble. Hopefully they’ll look into it.” Hammers goalkeeper Alphonse Areola added: “When families or friends are coming to the stadium we don’t want to see things like that. They want to enjoy the event and we want to enjoy it with them as well. We were worried about them.” During last week’s first leg at the London Stadium, members of AZ players’ families were involved in a confrontation with West Ham fans. AZ boss Pascal Jansen said: “What happened last week was very unfortunate and then you get the same feeling as what happened tonight. “I feel a little bit ashamed it happened in our stadium but you have to control your emotions.” The incident overshadowed West Ham reaching a first European final in 47 years and moving to within one match of a first trophy since the FA Cup in 1980. A year earlier West Ham had lost the plot at the same stage of the Europa League, crashing out at Eintracht Frankfurt after Cresswell was sent off and Moyes booted a ball at a ball boy. But this time West Ham held on to their composure, and no ball kids were harmed, as they completed a 3-1 aggregate win and booked a meeting with Fiorentina in Prague on June 7. It was no mean feat despite the less-than illustrious opposition. AZ have a phenomenal home record in Europe, unbeaten in their previous 25 matches, and had only lost here once to an English team – Moyes’ Everton in 2007 which ended a run of 32 games without defeat. So West Ham’s 2-1 lead from the first leg always looked slim, and none more so than when AZ dangerman Jesper Karlsson had a shot deflected over with only one minute on the clock. But West Ham held their nerve were rewarded for a disciplined display when substitute Fornals raced through to score the winner at the death. “I’m delighted to get to a European final,” added Moyes. “We got close last year. Maybe you shouldn’t be too surprised. We’ve won 13 and drawn one in this competition and now we have one more to go to see if we can win it. We’ve done a really good job in Europe this season and we’re thrilled. “The dressing room? Raucous is the word I’d use. I don’t want to give too much away but it was great, it’s something that as players and managers you don’t get too often in your career so we’re going to enjoy it.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Eddie Howe says Newcastle win ‘huge’ but warns still work to do in top-four hunt Bryson DeChambeau reflects on eventful year after setting early pace at US PGA Stefanos Tsitsipas victory sets up Daniil Medvedev semi-final showdown in Rome

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Newcastle boss Eddie Howe has told his players their resounding Premier League victory over Brighton will count for nothing if they do not beat Leicester to clinch a place in the Champions League. The Magpies survived a test of their top-four credentials at St James’ Park on Thursday evening when they defended a 2-1 lead in the face of a determined Seagulls backlash before eventually killing off the game to win 4-1. As a result, they climbed four points clear of fifth-placed Liverpool with both clubs having two games left, and will play in the Champions League next season if either the Reds lose at home to Aston Villa on Saturday or they beat the Foxes on Tyneside two days later. Asked if he could put into words how big a win it was, Howe said: “It’s a huge win for us. “I know it’s a bit of a cliche, but it won’t mean anything if we don’t back it up on Monday night and that’s an incredibly difficult game. After the high of today and what we’ve given in the match, we know we have to repeat it. “Nothing is given to you in the Premier League. We know Leicester’s qualities, so we have to be very calm, recover well and we have to have the same focus and mentality that we had today.” Newcastle looked to be cruising to victory when Deniz Undav’s own goal and a second from Dan Burn sent them in at the break 2-0 ahead, although Undav made amends within six minutes of the restart to spark something of a fightback before Callum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes struck at the death. I know it's a bit of a cliche, but it won't mean anything if we don't back it up on Monday night. Eddie Howe Howe’s side cannot now finish any lower than fifth and are assured of Europa League football at worst, but the 45-year-old is still not allowing himself to get excited. He said: “Honestly I don’t [get excited]. I take great pride in the performance tonight. I’ll go back home, watch the game and I’ll be, I hope, really proud of what I see, really enthused by the players delivering a brilliant product to watch for our supporters. “The excitement stuff doesn’t really exist in this job because you know there’s just another game and another challenge and it won’t stop even if we hit our goal. There’ll just be another challenge and it will hit us in the face next season.” Liverpool’s seven-game winning run had piled the pressure on the Magpies, although it is Jurgen Klopp’s men who now have little or no margin for error. However, Howe said: “We’re not looking at any other teams or trying to make any sort of statement, we just needed to win for us and that will be the same against Leicester.” For Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi, there was disappointment as he was forced to make changes to the side which beat Arsenal at the weekend, although they too have a prize within their grasp. The Seagulls are currently sixth on 58 points, one clear of Tottenham and Aston Villa but with a game in hand. De Zerbi, whose team host Southampton and Manchester City before finishing the campaign with a trip to Villa, said: “I think we will be able to qualify anyway for Europe. “We have to win two games. We will play in our stadium and with our fans in our stadium, we play with 12 players. “It is a difficult period, but to qualify for Europe, we have to be stronger than everything because if we do, we reach a historic target, a big target, and we have right motivation and energy.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jose Mourinho into another European final as Roma set up Sevilla showdown Bryson DeChambeau reflects on eventful year after setting early pace at US PGA Stefanos Tsitsipas victory sets up Daniil Medvedev semi-final showdown in Rome

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Kieran Trippier could have been trading the Champions League for the Championship. When his Newcastle career had the falsest of false starts, his debut a dispiriting defeat to Cambridge, the temptation was to wonder quite what he had swapped Atletico Madrid for. Sixteen months later, the answer is becoming clearer: with one more win, Trippier will be back in the Champions League. For Dan Burn, Newcastle’s takeover and the concurrent injections of ambitions and funds initially brought a different sense. By his own admission, it seemed his chance of playing for Newcastle, the club he supported in his boyhood in Blyth, was over. Now an unconventional journey from non-league to Champions League will be completed with one more victory. Burn represents the feelgood story in Newcastle’s rise, the ungainly, endearing local who, at 31, scored a first league goal for United to enable them to imagine dates with Barcelona or Bayern Munich. Trippier has proved still more of a catalyst. Two swings of a set-piece specialist’s right book brought two goals – one headed in by an opponent, one a teammate – though only one qualified as an assist. But, even as Callum Wilson added to his rich vein of form with a goal and an assist in an emphatic end, full-backs powered Newcastle forward. Money has helped but when Trippier agreed to be the first signing of the new regime, he brought credibility, offering others reasons to join. Bruno Guimaraes, who followed him to St James’ Park in January 2022, illustrated his impact again with the injury-time fourth against Brighton; without Trippier, would he have signed? A trailblazer has been a leader in other respects: the armband resides with Trippier and he is on course to become the first player since Alan Shearer two decades ago to captain Newcastle in the Champions League. Shortlisted for the Premier League player of the year award earlier in the day, he helped restore Newcastle to winning ways. After a solitary point from their previous two games, albeit from fine performances, Newcastle have momentum again. Monday’s game against a Leicester side seemingly in freefall could end their exile from Europe. They have the insurance policy of a final-day trip to Chelsea. They would not need either result if Liverpool were to lose on Saturday; the chances, though, are that Newcastle will do it in front of their own public. Given their home form – this was a fifth win in six on their own turf – it might feel fitting. Brighton had seemed to provide the greatest obstacle in the final fortnight of a season of overachievement but the conquerors of Arsenal could not produce a repeat performance in the North East. Newcastle prevailed after the almost statutory ferocious start at St James’ Park, the latest demonstration of this side’s running power, but because of two late goals and the platform laid by the class of Trippier’s dead-ball delivery. It is a way of adding another dimension as a corner and a free kick sufficed instead. He received inadvertent assistance from Deniz Undav; the cliché of a game of two halves had a certain truth in his case. In a disastrous first, Brighton’s German striker scored an own goal and conceded the free kick for Newcastle’s second. In a more auspicious second, he added to his strike against Arsenal by scoring against another of the top three, beating Nick Pope after racing on to Billy Gilmour’s pass. It means Newcastle only have a solitary clean sheet in their last 16 league games. They built from the back in the first half of the season. Defenders had to show a solidity in a nervy second half but proved the best form of attack before the break. When Trippier whipped in a corner, Undav only succeeded in glancing his header beyond Steele. When Trippier curled in a free kick, Burn, all 6ft 7in of him, rose highest to plant in a header; it was one way of repaying Brighton for allowing him to get his dream move last January. Brighton had performed a demolition job on Arsenal four days earlier; this, however, was a weaker Albion with Alexis Mac Allister, Evan Ferguson and Julio Enciso benched. Roberto de Zerbi sent for the cavalry when he brought them on in a triple substitution. And then, when they threatened to procure a point, the dam burst. Steele had made stunning saves from Miguel Almiron and Alexander Isak. Wilson had missed a sitter. But then his golden run continued. Wilson’s seventh goal in five games was slotted past Steele after Almiron carried the ball from deep in his half and released him; that, in turn, stemmed from Trippier winning possession by his own corner flag. Wilson then had the selflessness to tee up Guimaraes for a tap-in. His alliance with Eddie Howe began nine years ago, when Bournemouth signed the striker from League One Coventry. And now a very different league beckons for both. Read More Eddie Howe: Football must learn from my confrontation with fan Eddie Howe responds after angry fan enters Newcastle technical area during Leeds draw

Callum Wilson and Bruno Guimaraes served up a grandstand finish to take Newcastle to the brink of Champions League football with a resounding victory over Brighton. Having seen Deniz Undav drag the Seagulls back into the game after his own goal and Dan Burn’s towering header had given the Magpies a 2-0 half-time lead, Wilson scored his 18th of the season and then set up Guimaraes to wrap up a 4-1 win at the death in front of a delirious crowd of 52,122 at St James’ Park. Eddie Howe’s men will be assured of a top-four finish if Liverpool lose to Aston Villa on Saturday – even a draw might ultimately prove enough as a result of their superior goal difference – but can complete the job themselves in any case if they beat struggling Leicester on Tyneside on Monday evening. For much of the game, this was not the Brighton which effectively ended Arsenal’s title challenge on Sunday, partly because of the absence of Levi Colwill, Alexis Mac Allister, Julio Enciso and Evan Ferguson from the starting line-up, but largely as a result of the relentless pressure exerted by their opponents. Joe Willock saw an early cross hacked away to Miguel Almiron, whose shot was blocked at source as the Magpies found their rhythm, and Fabian Schar drilled a ninth-minute free-kick straight at the grateful Jason Steele. Willock fired just wide from Almiron’s pull-back seconds later, and the Paraguay international cleared the target by some distance from a tight angle after the former Arsenal midfielder had returned the favour. Such was the Magpies’ early intensity that the Seagulls were struggling to play their way out of their own half, much to manager Roberto De Zerbi’s agitation, although keeper Nick Pope was tested for the first time by Danny Welbeck’s 16th-minute attempt after Kaoru Mitoma had picked him out. But the pressure finally told with 23 minutes gone when Trippier drilled the latest of a series of corners to the near post and in his attempt to clear it, Undav could only glance the ball into his own net. Burn saw a sharply-executed 34th-minute shot on the turn deflected wide after the visitors failed to deal with another Trippier corner and although Mitoma chanced his arm with an ambitious 37th-minute strike which failed to engage Pope, Newcastle extended their lead deep into added time. With Joelinton still seething at a Moises Caicedo challenge which went unpunished by referee Robert Jones, Tripper took full advantage of a decision which did go his side’s way seconds later, curling a free-kick on to the head of Burn, who powered it past the helpless Steele. Almiron passed up a chance to put the game beyond the visitors within five minutes of the restart when he shot straight at Steele from Willock’s knock-down, and the miss proved costly within seconds when Undav ran on to Billy Gilmour’s through-ball and beat Pope to make amends for his earlier contribution. Mac Allister, Enciso and Ferguson were swiftly thrown into the mix and just as quickly, Willock departed clutching his hamstring and Elliot Anderson joined the fray. But there was no let-up as the home side saw penalty appeals waved away after Burn appeared to have his shirt tugged and Steele made a superb save to keep out Alexander Isak’s header. Enciso glanced Caicedo’s cross wide of Pope’s far post as the game became increasingly open, but the Magpies launched a devastating late assault to wrap up the win. Wilson added a third when he rounded off an 89th-minute counter-attack sparked by Almiron before setting up Guimaraes to make it 4-1 in injury-time. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live From illness to birth of daughter – Ryan Fox’s remarkable US PGA build-up Steve Smith finds form with Ollie Robinson and Stuart Broad among the wickets Tom Curry wants action over ‘crocodile roll’ technique that sidelined twin Ben

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