David Moyes insists West Ham still have “half a chance” of reaching the semi-finals of the Europa League despite conceding two late goals to lose 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen in the quarter-final first leg.
The German league leaders dominated the game, putting Moyes’ side under sustained pressure, but the Hammers stood firm until the final minutes.
Keeper Lucasz Fabianski was outstanding, producing several vital saves to keep the hosts at bay.
The highlight was a brilliant stop to tip over Patrik Schick’s header midway through the second half.
But Fabianski was finally beaten with seven minutes remaining. A corner wasn’t dealt with and, after a superb block by Kurt Zouma, Jonas Hofmann was able to fire home.
And in stoppage time, Victor Boniface out-jumped Zouma and Aaron Cresswell to head in Hofmann’s cross.
Meanwhile, Lucas Paquetá will miss the second leg at the London Stadium as a yellow card he picked up means he must now serve a suspension.
Speaking at his post-match press conference, boss Moyes said: “We’re still in the tie and we have half a chance in the second leg.
“We’d like to have played more attacking. The players did a brilliant job with the structure. We got done by two corner-kicks. The second one was really poor from our point of view.
“It’s going to take some performance because they’re a really good team. You never know what’s going to happen. Let’s try to get one and then see if we can get two. We’ll pick ourselves up for next week and hopefully get the crowd behind us.
“This team we’re playing will be Champions League next year. We have to recognise what we’re playing against. We’ll have to do exceptionally well to get that result.”
For all Leverkusen’s dominance, Mohammed Kudus should have given the Hammers the lead following a first-half counter-attack.
They managed to catch their opponents on the break and Michail Antonio teed up Kudus, who could only shoot straight at keeper Matěj Kovář.
“We played against a Champions League side and we’re not quite at that level,” Moyes admitted.