West Ham 1-1 Lyon: Ten-man Hammers earn first-leg draw

Tanguy Ndombélé grabbed the leveller as Lyon had to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw against ten-man West Ham in London.

Match in brief: Hammers hold on with ten men

The two teams largely cancelled each other out in the first period, but deep into stoppage time the Hammers were dealt a blow when Aaron Cresswell was shown a straight red card for pulling back Moussa Dembélé.

Moussa Dembélé applauds the Lyon fans in LondonAFP via Getty Images

Lyon started the second half well but were stunned when Jarrod Bowen took advantage of a mistake at the back to clip in the opener, via a deflection off Jérôme Boateng.

However, the visitors were soon back in the ascendancy and levelled when substitute Tetê's low cross hit Ryan Fredericks and presented Ndombélé with a simple finish.

Joseph Terry, match reporter

After a first half spent sizing Lyon up, the complexion of the tie was completely changed with Cresswell's red card, but even though they let a lead slip, West Ham can be very proud of their performance. Indeed, they would surely have taken this scoreline at half-time. They were disciplined and committed throughout the second half, restricting their opponents to remarkably few chances. Peter Bosz will probably rue letting such a good chance slip to kill off this tie. A full-strength West Ham will be confident of beating Lyon next week in France.

Reaction

David Moyes, West Ham manager, speaking to UEFA.com: "That was an incredibly good, resilient performance in the second half. It wasn't a good performance overall, I didn't like the way my team played, but when you go down to ten men, I think you have to praise my players for getting a draw out of the game."

Peter Bosz, Lyon manager, speaking to UEFA.com: "Absolutely [I'm disappointed] because I think we played a good first half; in their stadium we were dominant and had a lot of ball possession. Then if you play against ten, normally you should win the game."

Jarrod Bowen, West Ham forward, speaking to BT Sport: "The manager said at half-time to keep our heads. It was a case of staying in the game. We did, went 1-0 up and it was then just about defending the lead. It was always going to be difficult. It is still all to play for."

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Key stats

• West Ham have scored in their last 11 matches at home in all competitions, last drawing a blank against Dinamo Zagreb on Matchday 6.
• Lyon are unbeaten in their nine UEFA Europa League matches this season (W6 D3).
• Aaron Cresswell's red card was the first ever for a West Ham player in European competition (excluding qualifiers).

Line-ups

West Ham: Areola; Fredericks, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Souček, Rice, Fornals; Bowen, Antonio, Benrahma (Johnson 46)

Lyon: Lopes; Gusto, Boateng (Toko Ekambi 64), Lukeba, Emerson; Mendes (Denayer 90), Ndombélé; Aouar, Lucas Paquetá, Faivre (Tetê 64); Dembélé

Where is the 2022 Europa League final?

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Sevilla's Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium will stage the final on Wednesday 18 May.

The winners gain a place in the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League group stage, if they have not qualified via their domestic competition.