West Ham shrugged off their dismal Premier League start to ease into the Europa Conference League group stage on Thursday with a 6-1 aggregate rout of Viborg in their play-off tie.

Already 3-0 up from last week’s first leg in London, West Ham secured victory with £30 million striker Gianluca Scamacca, Algerian international Said Benrahma and Czech star Tomas Soucek on target in Denmark.

The English side were barely threatened but goalkeeper Alphonse Areola had to be alert with a double save to keep out Jay-Roy Grot and Justin Lonwijk.

“It’s massive for us to be in the group stage. We’re fighting every year to get European football for our people and we couldn’t miss this opportunity,” Spanish midfielder Pablo Fornals told the club website. 

“We knew that coming here the atmosphere would be tough, and it wasn’t easy to come here and play against a crowd that probably knew it was hard to qualify, but were still here to support their team with everything. It wasn’t easy.

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