{"id":308257,"date":"2025-12-10T05:03:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308257\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T05:03:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T05:03:14","slug":"west-ham-flop-stuns-chelsea-and-scores-his-first-ever-champions-league-goal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/308257\/","title":{"rendered":"West Ham flop stuns Chelsea and scores his first-ever Champions League goal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A West Ham United flop played a major role as Enzo Maresca\u2019s Chelsea suffered a blow in their hopes of Champions League progression on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>While <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hammers.news\/transfer-news\/niclas-fullkrugs-west-ham-exit-is-finally-moving-forwards-after-four-rejections\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Niclas Fullkrug looks destined to leave the London Stadium<\/a> during the January transfer window, another big-money striker signing who struggled to live up to his hefty price tag is proving that failing in the Premier League does not necessarily equal the end of the road.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hammers.news\/news\/west-ham-boss-david-moyes-left-with-egg-on-his-face-with-gianluca-scamacca-on-fire-for-atalanta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gianluca Scamacca exploded back into life with Atalanta<\/a> following his \u00a322.5 million move away from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hammers.news\/tag\/gianluca-scamacca\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">West Ham United<\/a> in the summer of 2023. <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2250330215-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Enzo Maresca Atalanta v Chelsea - UEFA Champions League\" class=\"wp-image-288500\" \/>Photo by Isabella Bonotto\/Anadolu via Getty ImagesFormer West Ham striker Gianluca Scamacca powers Atalanta past Chelsea <\/p>\n<p>After netting only eight times in his one and only season in claret and blue \u2013 although it is fair to say David Moyes maybe could have done more to accommodate the mercurial Italian \u2013 he struck 19 in his debut campaign for an Atalanta outfit who made him front and centre of their attack, in every sense.<\/p>\n<p>And a first Champions League goal would come his way when West Ham\u2019s bigger rivals Chelsea made the trip to Bergamo.<\/p>\n<p>           Why do you think Niclas Fullkrug failed? <\/p>\n<p class=\"grv-talking-point__subtitle\">And who do you want to replace him at West Ham?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it might make sense to make a change.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany would probably agree that Niclas is a classic penalty-area striker, basically made for the Premier League. [But] in retrospect, you have to say the transfer didn\u2019t work. There\u2019s no sugar-coating it.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 agent Thorsten Wirth<\/p>\n<p> \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n<p>A lovely flighted cross, and a simple back-post header. For a centre-forward who has made his name for explosive, highly-technical finishes, this was strangely straightforward.<\/p>\n<p> Scamacca\u2019s equaliser just before the hour cancelled out Joao Pedro\u2019s opener. A late Charles de Ketelaere winner, meanwhile, means Atalanta are now up to third in the Champions League table.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea are now eleventh, with work to do if they are to secure automatic qualification to the quarter finals.<\/p>\n<p>That was Scamacca\u2019s 23rd goal in 58 Atalanta games. A tally which looks all the more impressive when you consider he played only one match last season due to a serious injury.<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell a similar post-West Ham revival awaits Fullkrug in 2026. <\/p>\n<p>  Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n<p>Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Ham United flop played a major role as Enzo Maresca\u2019s Chelsea suffered a blow in their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1669,218,123128,21560,221,12652,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-308257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-champions-league","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-gianluca-scamacca","11":"tag-niclas-fullkrug","12":"tag-premier-league","13":"tag-serie-a","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}