Joe Cole: West Ham goalscorer Said Benrahma ‘could be a hero here forever’ after performance against AZ Alkmaar

The two sides met on Thursday night in the first leg of their Europa Conference Leg semi-final in London, and for around half an hour they were trailing to their Dutch opponents.

However, Benrahma put in a player-of-the-match performance and levelled for the home side on 67 minutes.

Twelve minutes later, Michail Antonio scored to give David Moyes’ side a one-goal advantage going into next week’s return leg.

Speaking on BT Sport, Cole and former Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves were full of praise for the Algerian.

“He was the best player,” said Hargreaves. “I don’t think anyone could really live with him. He was always running at people and with his ability, he is really hard to play against. His team-mates kept feeding him because he was the guy who was going to decide the game.”

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Cole added: “He has his full-back on toast.

“He has got the quality and he trusts his ability to draw two or three players towards him and he thinks, ‘I am going to drop a shoulder, wriggle my way out of this’.

“I have always been a fan of his and after tonight I think he could be a hero here forever. He changed the course of that game. His ability and his corner for the penalty. He was fantastic.”