Hammers fall to late goals against Leverkusen 2-0

David Moyes‘ defensive masterplan nearly paid dividends this evening after despite a disciplined defensive performance still gave Leverkusen a 2-0 win and leaving  West Ham a potential mountain to climb next week.

Even though Bayer Leverkusen seemingly had the ball most of the time, the Irons had arguably the best chance of the match in the first half after Antonio galloped down the left past Tah and left the Leverkusen captain and one time transfer target trailing. He then picked out Kudus with a superb square pass behind Tapsoba. The Ghanaian had time to pick his spot, but his first-time shot from the edge of the box was straight at Kovar.

More bad news was the fact that Paqueta getting booked after fouling Adli which means he’s had three yellow cards in the UEFA Europa League and is now out of next week’s second leg at the London stadium. Then Emerson tried to win a tackle, stood on the ankle of the Leverkusen player and he too is shown a yellow card. We had two players a booking away from a ban, and now both have now been carded which means that both miss the second leg.

Not the greatest of games to be honest, but you had to admire the Irons discipline and resolve. A tweak by Moyes on the hour saw Antonio given a bit of a break from working two or three centre-backs, by moving to the wide left and Paqueta playing down the middle, albeit he was not exactly playing as a striker.

Sadly the dam was breached on the 83rd minute when Leverkusen got their ninth corner on the match. Grimlado took it, the ball fell to Boniface who saw his shot blocked by Zouma but the ball looped to Hofman who volleyed in from 15 yards.

Five minutes later a short corner from Hofman allowed Boniface to head into the bottom corner.

Costly goals !

Next week at the London stadium will be a wall of noise as we try and rescue the tie