UEL: Sevilla win tight first leg

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Sevilla 1 - 0 West Ham United

West Ham's hopes of reaching the next round of the Europa League hang in the balance after they fell to a narrow first-leg defeat in Sevilla.

Munir El Haddadi scored the only goal for the home side, sweeping in from Marcos Acuna's free-kick on the hour mark.

For most of the game, David Moyes' West Ham side had more than held their own in their first European knockout tie since 1981.

Nikola Vlasic headed an early opportunity directly at the Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou. Michail Antonio then missed his kick with the follow up from close range.

Vlasic also saw Bounou tip a low driven effort around the post. Tomas Soucek then tested the home goalkeeper. Manuel Lanzini also saw his close-range effort blocked as the London club tried to breach the mean Sevilla defence.

An exciting Europa League tie also saw the hosts create several openings of note with Munir heading wide from Jesus Corona's cross. Youssef En-Nesyri also went close, Lucas Ocampos then flashed an effort across the face of the goal.

Sevilla occupy second place in La Liga so the difficulty of West Ham's assignment was clearly evident. This was further highlighted by their outstanding record at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium.

Highlights

You can watch the highlights of the match in the video below. Footage from BT Sport. BT Sport - YouTube

More to come from West Ham

David Moyes will be more than pleased by the efficient manner in which his side went about their work. 

He will also have noted the impact of substitute Said Benrahma, whose elusive running caused the Spanish side several problems after his introduction. He may come into consideration to start the return leg at London Stadium next week.

Moyes added in a post match interview: "I thought we ran them really close tonight and I’m sure we’ll run them close when we play them next week as well."

The Sevilla boss added “The team showed great character and were full of heart. They moved the ball quickly out on the pitch.” 

Did you enjoy this post match report? More football news from across Europe can be found by clicking the link below.

European Super Football (eurosuperfootball.blogspot.com) 

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