West Ham United will have to come from behind if they are to reach a third consecutive European semi-final, after substitutes Jonas Hofmann and Victor Boniface struck late on to power Bayer Leverkusen to a 2-0 win in the UEFA Europa League quarter-final first leg at the BayArena.
David Moyes’ men stuck to a disciplined gameplan from the first whistle, and though Łukasz Fabiański was required to make a number of key saves throughout the first 45 minutes, Mohammed Kudus had a good chance to snatch the lead.
The match somewhat opened up after the interval and the away side gained a foothold with the ball, and though they weathered much of the storm served up by Leverkusen, Hofmann finally broke the deadlock with seven minutes to go before Boniface doubled his team’s advantage in stoppage-time.
The result puts West Ham on the back foot against a team unbeaten throughout the whole of 2023/24 ahead of next week’s home leg, but they will remain hopeful they can replicate their turnaround against Leverkusen’s compatriots SC Freiburg in the previous round.
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