West Ham’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the Europa League hang in the balance after they fell to a narrow defeat at Sevilla in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
Munir El Haddadi scored the game’s only goal for the six-time winners, sweeping in superbly from Marcos Acuna’s free-kick on the hour mark.
Until that point David Moyes’ West Ham side had more than held their own in their first knockout tie in a major European competition since 1981.
Nikola Vlasic headed an early opportunity straight at Sevilla goalkeeper Yassine Bounou, Michail Antonio then missing his kick with the follow up from close range.
Croatian forward Vlasic also saw Bounou tip a low driven effort around the post with Tomas Soucek also testing the home goalkeeper and Manuel Lanzini seeing his close-range effort blocked as the Hammers tried to breach the meanest defence in La Liga.
An end-to-end affair also saw the hosts create several openings of note with Munir heading wide from Jesus Corona’s cross, Youssef En-Nesyri going close and Lucas Ocampos flashing an effort across the face of the West Ham goal.
