And despite all their efforts West Ham couldn’t find the equaliser, and were sent crashing out of the Europa League in the qualifying rounds by the Romanian side for the second year in a row.
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Italy striker Zaza is close to joining from Juventus, with boss Bilic revealing: “I don’t know the details, but we were in talks and it was quite close”.
But in the meantime Bilic was left frustrated and angry as the Hammers exited the competition before it had even really begun.
Slaven Bilic’s side had left the tie in the balance after a disappointing 1-1 away draw a week ago and that result came back to haunt them as Astra took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Filipe Teixeira.
Bilic said: “We said before that this was one of most important games for us this year”.
“I’m angry and frustrated but I’m much more disappointed than anything else”. We’ll also be showing the game – which will air on BT Sport 2 and kicks off at 7.45pm – on the ever-popular BT Sport app, which has undergone a comprehensive makeover for the new season.
Calleri is likely to play a part as Andre Ayew and Andy Carroll are both missing and Noble has offered the Argentine forward his backing.
Sub Ashley Fletcher had a valid penalty claim waved away after he was bundled to the ground by Teixeira and was then denied by the leg of Lung from all of five yards out.
Darren Randolph is expected to start in goal for the Hammers while new signing Jonathan Calleri could replace Enner Valencia up front.
“We were also very lucky, but in football you need a bit of luck to win and luck is on the side of the strong ones”.
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But the one-on-one Calleri missed in the dying seconds against Bournemouth on Sunday may have still been playing on his mind when Reece Burke played him through early on, the ball getting stuck under his feet allowing Astra keeper Silviu Lung to save.
