The 10-man West Ham United side fought valiantly to a 1-1 draw in the UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg against Olympique Lyonnais.
KAMPALA | NOW THEN DIGITAL — With ten players on the field, West Ham United battled to a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League quarter-final against Olympique Lyonnais.
- In the UEFA Europa League quarter-final, West Ham United fought gamely to draw 1-1 with Olympique Lyonnais.
- In other games, Ferran Torres netted the equalizer as Barcelona battled back to tie Eintracht Frankfurt at 1-1.
- Roma, one of the favourites to win UEFA’s third-tier competition, suffered a 2-1 loss to Bodo/Glimt in the Europa Conference League.
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At London Stadium, the Hammers bounced back from a poor first half in which Aaron Cresswell was sent off for a challenge on Moussa Dembélé.
Jarrod Bowen again delivered the huge moments for West Ham as he pounced on a mistake at the back by the experienced Jérôme Boateng to finish beyond Anthony Lopes to give his side the lead seven minutes after the restart.
Tanguy Ndombélé levelled for the French side 14 minutes later as Peter Bosz’s team looked to take advantage of them ahead of the second leg in Lyon next week.
Speaking shortly after the game, Westham’s David Moyes applauded his charges for the brave performance however, raised his disappointment at the referee Felix Zwayer’s officiation.
Zwayer was awarded a red card that saw Aaron Cresswell sent off. Speaking about the decision, Moyes who was booked by the ref as he berated him over the incident said he did not want to be drawn into discussions concerning the match referee.
He, however, indicated that he was disappointed at the tackle in the lead up to (the red) on Jarrod which he thought was a foul that should have been called.
“Not a good performance. Poor but good resilience down to 10 men. The only thing I’m going to say is the tackle in the lead up to it (the red) on Jarrod was a foul so I expect that to be bartered into it. That’s the disappointment for me,” he said.
“I’m certainly not going to talk about the referee. I’m not discussing the red card. If they say it wasn’t a free kick (on Bowen) that’s OK. It was in the same sequence. I’d have expected VAR to check that,” added.
Meanwhile, Barcelona fought back against a spirited Eintracht Frankfurt to earn a 1-1 draw in another game via an equaliser by Ferran Torres.
In others, Atalanta and RB Leipzig also ended in a 1-1 draw.
In the Europa Conference League, Roma, one of the favourites to win UEFA’s new third-tier competition, failed to get their revenge at Bodo/Glimt, losing 2-1.
Leicester was also held to a 0-0 draw at home by PSV Eindhoven, Marseille defeated PAOK Salonika 2-1 and Slavia Prague earned a 3-3 draw with Feyenoord.
