London Stadium rocks as Hammers crash out

West Ham 1-1 Bayer Leverkusen

Guest post by Rory Matloob

West Ham draw 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen, goals on the night from Michail Antonio
and Jeremie Frimpong sees the Hammers lose 3-1 on aggregate.
Nathan Tella was presented with the first opportunity of the game; the ex-
Southampton player tested his luck from distance only to be denied from Fabianski
25 yards out from goal.

It looked to be a special night at the London stadium as Michail Antonio put us ahead
in the 13th minute, Odilon Kossounou who struggled to get into the game and was
subbed off after 29 minutes gifted possession to Bowen. The Englishman’s inch
perfect cross from outside the box was met by our number 9 as he nipped in to beat
Matej Kovar to it.

Ten minutes later and it should have been 2-0, Mohammed Kudus’ right footed cross
picked out Bowen at the back post, Bowen’s effort was a poor one for his standards.
He will be kicking himself with that one tonight.

Bowen who was a serious threat in the first half was causing all sorts of problems for
Alejandro Grimaldo, Bowen jinked inside and fired a low cross into the box. Kovar
was quick to react though and collected the cross to deny Antonio from grabbing his
second on the night.

Outstanding first half

We went into the break 1-0 up after a really strong performance, however there was
still work to do to turn around the 2-0 deficit from the first leg.
The visitors came out strong in the second half, in the 50 th minute they had sprung
on the counterattack. Florian Wirtz’s who has been a standout player this season
failed to cause any danger to the West Ham goal with his attempt.

Nine minutes later and it looked certain we would grab a second, Bowen’s pressure
on Piero Hincapie looked to have worked a treat after he lost his footing inside the
box. Unfortunately, Bowen’s strike will be one he’ll want to forget as he failed to hit
the target.

Leverkusen started to take more control of the ball as the clock was ticking as we
searched for a second goal. Frimpong was played in behind by Exequiel Palacios
with only Fabianksi to beat, the Dutchmen almost had too much time to think about
what he was going to do as his side footed effort went over the bar.

Frimpong denied any chance of extra time, in the 89th minute he dribbled past
Ogbonna and fired an attempt on goal. Aaron Creswell who put in a strong
performance tonight was the unfortunate one as the ball deflected off him and went
past Fabianski.

It was a solid performance from us tonight and there’s certainly no shame in being
knocked out by a team who are still unbeaten in all competitions this season. Up
next is Crystal Palace away which certainly won’t be a simple game with Oliver
Glasner’s side looking dangerous in the past few weeks.