EXTRA TIME

West Ham draw first leg with Lyon

April 7, 2022 at 10:08 pm Leave a comment

West Ham United and Lyon traded goals at the start of the second half to leave our UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg finely poised at 1-1.

Aaron Cresswell was red carded at the end of the first half for pulling Moussa Dembélé back as he ran clear in the right channel. His touch looked to have taken him wide of goal, but not in the eyes of referee Felix Zwayer, who sent the left-back for an early bath.

It was the Hammers who struck first, though, Jarrod Bowen seizing on an error from away defender Jérôme Boateng to convert from close range.

With 66 minutes played, Tanguy Ndombélé hit back, knocking home from six yards out after Alphonse Areola could only touch a low cross back out.

The quarterfinal between Eintracht Frankfurt and Barcelona ended with the same result as the tie at London Stadium. The home team had also taken the lead, but FC Barcelona managed to equalise in the 66th minute, the same minute in which Lyon scored against West Ham. And Frankfurt player Tuta was red-carded like Aaron Cresswell, albeit in the second half.

“It was not a good performance,“ West Ham manager David Moyes had to admit, “but it was a good, resilient performance defensively.” After Cresswell’s dismissal the Hammers could be happy that the score in London was only 1-1. It could easily have been Lyon to take a lead back to France from London.

Though West Ham have a mountain to climb in the return leg, winning in Lyon is possible if the Hammers keep eleven players on the pitch. Come on you Irons!

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