Rapid Vienna v West Ham live stream, BT Sport, Thursday 25 November, 5.45pm GMT
West Ham will book a spot in the last 16 of the Europa League if they beat Rapid Vienna on Thursday.
Europe’s secondary club competition has been revamped this year, along with the introduction of the Europa Conference League. Only the group winners automatically advance to the knockout stage under the new format, with second-place finishers progressing to a preliminary knockout round.
David Moyes will therefore be keen to secure top spot as soon as possible, and a four-point margin over second-placed Dinamo Zagreb means they will do so by winning either of their two remaining games in Group H.
Some wondered whether the Hammers would struggle to balance the Europa League with their domestic commitments, but they have done extremely well in that regard up to now.
West Ham have won three and drawn one of their four games in this competition, scoring nine goals and conceding only two. Their positive form on the continental stage has not affected their Premier League performance: West Ham may have lost to Wolves at the weekend but they remain fourth in the table, ahead of Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham. They are also through to the quarter-finals of the League Cup, where they are due to face Spurs next month.
West Ham’s ability to juggle multiple competitions is testament to the strength of their squad. Moyes has tended to shuffle his pack for Europa League matches, with the likes of Andriy Yarmolenko, Mark Noble, Issa Diop and Alphonse Areola handed the opportunities they struggle to get in the Premier League. That policy might change if West Ham go deeper in the competition, but for now it is an approach which is serving them well.
Rapid Vienna are currently bottom of the group and realistically need to beat West Ham to remain in with a chance of finishing second. Goals from Declan Rice and Said Benrahma gave the Londoners a 2-0 win in the reverse fixture in September.
Kick-off is at 5.45pm GMT and the game is being shown live on BT Sport 1 in the UK.
Use a VPN to watch a Rapid Vienna v West Ham live stream from outside your country
If you’re on holiday or just simply out of the country, your domestic on-demand services won’t work – the broadcaster knows exactly where you are from your IP address. Your access to the game will be automatically blocked, which is annoying if you’ve paid a subscription fee and don't want to use an illegal stream that decides to buffer at the worst possible moment. And that's where we recommend ExpressVPN (more on which below).
All you need to do is get a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to get beyond such aggravations (assuming it complies with your broadcaster’s T&Cs). A VPN creates a private connection between your device and the internet, meaning suppliers can’t work out where you are and what you’re doing. The info going to and from is entirely encrypted.
There are plenty of options out there, including:
