West Ham Fall To A Narrow Defeat At Old Trafford
The Hammers left to rue missed chances after a close 1-0 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford yesterday afternoon.
West Ham came into the game off the back of 2 wins in 2 games in the last 7 days, following victories against Bournemouth in the league on Monday and Silkeborg in the Conference League on Thursday.
David Moyes made one change to his starting lineup from the last Premier League game, as Craig Dawson returned from injury to replace Ben Johnson in the back line.
Summer signings Lucas Paqueta, Maxwel Cornet and Nayef Aguerd once again missed out on the match squad as they all continue recovering from injury.
Manchester United started the better of the two sides, and had some good chances. Ronaldo and Rashford both had chances to open the scoring, but both attempts were saved by Fabianski.
West Ham also had a few opportunities on the counter attack, as Gianluca Scamacca put Said Benrahma through on goal on two occasions, but the Algerian failed to trouble De Gea.
After 38 minutes, the hosts opened the scoring. Christian Eriksen played a one-two with Bruno Fernandes on the right wing, before the Dane hit a cross which was headed home by Marcus Rashford, netting his 100th goal for Manchester United.
West Ham started the second half by changing their goalkeeper. Alphonse Areola replaced Lukasz Fabianski due to a problem with his knee.
However, it would be the goalkeeper in the other goal that would take the spotlight in the second half. David De Gea made a number of fantastic saves in the last 15 minutes to keep his side ahead.
With 8 minutes to go, Michail Antonio held off Scott McTominay before turning and shooting from distance, but his shot was tipped over by De Gea.
From the resulting corner, the ball fell to Cresswell outside the box and his cross found Zouma, but his header was pushed wide by the Spaniard at full stretch.
Fred had the chance to kill the game for Manchester United with 4 minutes left, but his free header bounced back off the post.
The Hammers had one final chance right at the death. Said Benrahma dribbled past a number of players before being tackled on the edge of the box, but the loose ball fell to Declan Rice, who’s first time strike was curling into the corner of the goal, but David De Gea once again saved at full strength to deny the West Ham captain.
After the game, David Moyes told the press, “We did a good job and played well, more in the second half than we did in the first half. We were just lacking the final ingredient”.
Next up for West Ham is a trip to Romania on Thursday to face FCSB in their final Conference League group game, before hosting London rivals Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Sunday.