Down but not out, West Ham United again experienced more first-leg adversity in this UEFA Europa League, semi-final first-leg at sold-out London Stadium, where old adversaries Eintracht Frankfurt gained the upper hand ahead of next Thursday’s return in Germany.
After losing their opening tie in Seville and then only eking out a home draw with 10 men against Olympique Lyonnais, David Moyes' men will, once again, still have it all to do in the second leg in seven days’ time.
But they can travel with some confidence from their previous recoveries that landed knockout punches on both the Spaniards and the French and, although the return against a slick and agile Frankfurt side represents an uphill struggle, the Hammers boss will take heart from the fact that his side also agonisingly struck the woodwork no less than three times during the course of these opening 90 minutes.
On a night when West Ham could not have got off to a worse start after seeing Ansgar Knauff head the visitors ahead inside the opening 52 seconds, Michail Antonio then levelled with only his second goal since New Year’s Day midway through the first half.
Yet having overcome that early setback to claw themselves back into this semi-final, the Hammers then conceded 10 minutes after the break as Daichi Kamada slotted home to leave West Ham now needing to turn the tie on its head if they are to progress to next month’s final in Seville.
Following Sunday afternoon’s last-gasp defeat at Chelsea, Moyes made a half-dozen changes to his side currently sitting in seventh spot in the Premier League as he turned his attention to the Hammers first major European semi-final in 46 years.
That included the springing of a huge Stratford surprise with the recall of the fit-again Kurt Zouma and, having seemingly recovered from an ankle injury recently sustained at Brentford, the Frenchman’s shock reappearance had come alongside recalls for Antonio, skipper Declan Rice, top-scorer Jarrod Bowen, Manuel Lanzini and Alphonse Areola, who each returned to the starting line-up in place of substitutes Mark Noble, Andriy Yarmolenko, Saïd Benrahma, Arthur Masuaku, Vladimír Coufal and Łukasz Fabiański.
Ironically, back in 1976 the Hammers had overcome Eintracht Frankfurt in the last four of an enthralling European Cup Winners’ Cup tie after losing the first leg in West Germany by this same 2-1 scoreline and, here in London – nearly a half-century on – they found themselves trailing within a minute of this opening Europa League encounter.
Indeed, with only those 52 seconds on the clock. Rafael Borré was allowed both time and space on the left-hand side of West Ham area to send over a pin-point cross towards the far post, where Knauff ghosted behind the flat-footed Pablo Fornals to head Frankfurt into a lead they could have only dreamed about before kick-off.
Arriving at London Stadium unbeaten in this season’s competition, Eintracht – who having overcome Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis and Barcelona in the knock-out stages - had drawn with Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
Standing in ninth spot back home, the Germans have clearly been investing all their energy on the continent this season and having taken another lead on foreign soil, they almost doubled their advantage when that man Knauff raced on to Lindstrøm’s well-weighted through ball but the alert Alphonse Areola bravely sprinted from his line to dive into the German U21 international’s studs.
Instead of critically finding themselves two goals adrift inside the opening 10 minutes, the Hammers now took advantage of that escape to get into their stride.
To date, all they had to show for their evening’s work was a Tomáš Souček header that had drifted well wide, however with the quarter-hour mark approaching, the Czech Republic midfielder released Bowen behind the visitors’ defence but having outpaced Filip Kostić, West Ham’s top scorer could only whip a low 12-yarder onto the base of Kevin Trapp’s left-hand post.
The claret and blue groans were audible but midway through the half, ecstatic East End cheers rose from the bubbling cauldron, when Fornals’ angled free-kick was nodded back across goal by Zouma who saw the stretching Antonio arrive a split second before Rice to prod West Ham level from all of six inches.
With an enthralling encounter ebbing and flowing from end to end, Antonio seized on a moment of uncertainty in the Frankfurt defence but he just could not edge the ball to the unmarked Bowen, while in the West Ham box Knauff again showed a blistering turn of foot to get the better of Aaron Cresswell but his rising shot cleared Areola’s crossbar to keep it all square at the break.
Nine minutes into the second period, though, the Hammers keeper was not so fortunate when a clean, crisp incisive passing move down the left channel resulted in Lindstrøm slotting a defence-splitting ball into West Ham area and while the French stopper got a glove to Djibril Sow’s low shot he was powerless to prevent the inrushing Kamada from picking up the pieces and stroking Frankfurt back into the lead.
In reply, Fornals slashed wide ahead of Moyes summoning Benrahma from the bench to replace Lanzini for the final quarter and the Algerian substitute almost marked his arrival in spectacular fashion but after winning possession 30 yards out, his curling shot steamed through the Stratford air before grazing the outside of Trapp’s left-hand upright.
Minutes later, Benrahma found himself yet closer to goal but this time he could only shank his effort wide of the target with all the accuracy of an occasional once-a-year golfer.
Having seen the Hammers hit the woodwork twice, it was then Eintracht’s turn to strike a post when Kamada curled an angled 15-yarder across the face of Areola onto the far upright.
Fine margins.
And with West Ham still only chasing that one-goal deficit both Sow and Martin Hinteregger were booked by Dutch referee, Serdar Gozubuyuk, for cynically felling Souček and Bowen in quick succession.
With the clock ticking down far too quickly for anyone and everyone connected with West Ham United, Benrahma’s cross into the danger-zone resulted in the headlong Bowen nodding agonisingly over the top.
Still, there was more agony to come in the quest for that elusive equaliser, for as the contest entered stoppage time, it was anything but third time lucky when Rice curled one final cross into the dangerzone, where the airborne Bowen sent an acrobatic overhead kick crashing on to the crossbar and down on to the turf to maintain the Germans’ one-goal advantage going into next Thursday’s tricky, yet salvageable, Frankfurt return.
West Ham United: Areola, Johnson, Cresswell, Zouma, Rice, Souček, Fornals, Lanzini (Benrahma 66), Bowen, Antonio. Unused subs: Fabiański, Randolph, Coufal, Yarmolenko, Vlašić, Noble, Fredericks, Masuaku, Král, Alese, Chesters.
Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp, Tuta, Touré, Hinteregger, Knauff, Kostić, Rode, Sow, Lindstrøm (Hauge 62), Kamada, Borré (Ache 90+2). Unused subs: Grahl, Horz, Hrustic, Lammers, Hasebe, Chandler, da Costa, Lenz, Barkok, Paciência.
Booked: Sow (79), Hinteregger (80).
Referee: Serdar Gozubuyuk (Netherlands).
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here