Mohammed Kudus 'goal of the season contender' draws Diego Maradona comparisons from Joe Cole

TNT Sports pundit Joe Cole was full of praise for Mohammed Kudus after the West Ham United forward scored a "goal of the season contender" against Freiburg.

David Moyes' team claimed an emphatic 5-0 victory over the Bundesliga outfit to cruise into the quarter-finals of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday.

Having lost 1-0 in the first leg, The Hammers started off the better team and went ahead through Lucas Paqueta inside nine minutes.

Jarrot Bowen put West Ham ahead on aggregate after the half-hour mark with a fine strike and Aaron Cresswell grabbed his first European goal to make it 3-0 in the second half.

The match was then lit up by Kudus after 77 minutes when he picked the ball up inside his own half and dribbled past the entire Freiburg defence before producing a calm finish into the bottom corner.

The Ghana international then grabbed his second eight minutes later with another fine strike, but his first goal was the big topic after the game.

"Everyone was outstanding tonight," Cole told TNT Sports. "Kudus' goal is going to be shown decades down the line, what a goal that is. Goal of the season contender."

Diego Maradona scored one of the greatest goals in football history when he dribbled past most of the England team at the World Cup in 1986, and Cole likened Kudus' effort to that of the Argentina legend.

"This is Diego Maradona '86," Cole said. "He's driving past [everyone] and then to have the composure on his weak foot. Running at pace and to open his body up and to slide it, it's very easy to lift that and it's a great goal.

"[Second goal] It's a lovely move. West Ham were at their best and Freiburg were miles off it.

"Doing that week in and week out in the Premier League will be very difficult but they played on the front foot and did an outstanding attacking performance."

Speaking after the win, Bowen also praised Kudus for his performance and his stunning strikes in the second half.

"I'm so happy for him," he told TNT Sports. "He's got that quality in him, he's so sharp with the ball.

"To get that goal and then the second one at the end as well, he deserves everything."

When asked about the team's display on the night, Bowen added: "We knew we had to take the game to them. We knew there'd be goals if we fully went for it.

"You see tonight that we did five goals and it could've been more but it was just what we needed. Especially playing at home, we needed a reaction and we got it."

He continued: "The fans want to see it as well and we played on the front foot from the start and I think that's been our biggest problem. Not being consistent enough and building on results - the way we finished at Burnley, that's how we wanted to start this game and maintain it.

"In the second half, the energy levels go down a bit but we got ourselves so far ahead that it was pretty comfortable in the end."

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