The home fans quickly left the Premier League club’s new 60,000-seater stadium within seconds of the full-time whistle, although the small pocket of Romanian fans remained to celebrate with their jubilant players.
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West Ham have won only one of their last seven European games, all Europa League qualifiers (D2 L4).
The heartbreak from the loss still remains deep as Slavan Bilic’s failed to entice the Hammers fans with the promising attractive attacking football.
It was starting to become apparent that West Ham’s profligacy was going to cost them and Ashley Fletcher then surrendered the best chance yet, controlling Ogbonna’s mishit to spring a fine stop from Lung with his close-range finish.
Good evening and welcome to Sports Mole’s live coverage as West Ham United take on Astra Giurgiu in the second leg of their Europa League qualifying playoff.
Astra keeper Silviu Lung was kept busy, but by no means under siege, as West Ham huffed and puffed to no avail after the break.
Tractor Boys boss Mick McCarthy and assistant Terry Connor watched the England Under-19 global play for the Magpies earlier this week in an U-23 match against West Ham.
An angry and frustrated Bilic told reporters after the match: “We said before that this was one of most important games for us this year”.
‘We didn’t play good.
Bilic’s star man Dimitri Payet was again missing, while Mark Noble also sat out, and his team made a slow start in their absence.
As a result his team did not provide enough creativity and attacking threat against a side many expected them to beat.
City have a 100 percent record under Guardiola after beating Sunderland and Stoke City in the Premier League and reaching the Champions League group stage with a 6-0 aggregate playoff victory over Steaua Bucharest. Calleri was culpable and wasted one wonderful headed chance. They beat us previous year and it is not job done.
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Simone Zaza is set to on loan from Juventus with a view to a permanent move that could be worth £24million to help ease Bilic’s problems up front, however, the Italian, nor new midfielder Edimilson Fernandes, will be available for the clash at the Etihad Stadium.
