If David Moyes was looking for a rousing performance from West Ham to instil hope of mounting a Europa League comeback against Bayer Leverkusen there were no signs of encouragement during this flat defeat to Fulham.
A bright start from West Ham failed to translate into a goal and Andreas Pereira exposed a defensive mistake for the breakthrough. Fulham took control of the match – their dangerous attacks rewarded with another finish from the livewire Brazilian – to flatten the hosts and weaken their prospects of qualifying for European football again next season.
West Ham must overturn a two-goal deficit against Leverkusen on Thursday night but this limp loss offered no evidence to suggest they are capable of delivering another famous European night.
Moyes said: “I’m gutted because it was a great chance to go sixth. But we gave the ball away in the midfield and it opened us up and we were punished.”
On their chances of upsetting Leverkusen in the second leg, the West Ham manager said: “Miracle is a strong word. But we’ll have to play really well. We didn’t have our shooting boots today. We’re going to need our goalscorers to come up with the goods.”
West Ham started with purpose and should have scored the opener inside the first four minutes after Vladimir Coufal’s attempt was parried by Bernd Leno and Michail Antonio thrashed the ball over from close range.
There was no initial sign of fatigue after their midweek exploits in Leverkusen and Mohammed Kudus curled a shot from the right edge of the area narrowly past Leno’s far post. The early dominance continued with Lucas Paquetá’s half-volley striking the side netting.
Fulham had hardly got out of their own half but punished West Ham ruthlessly after taking advantage of a defensive blunder. A hopeful punt into the penalty area from Alex Iwobi was not dealt with by Konstantinos Mavropanos, the defender’s heavy touch handing the ball to Pereira and the Brazilian midfielder rounded Lukasz Fabianski to tap into the empty net.
Buoyed by the breakthrough, Fulham nearly doubled their lead with Willian breaking away down the left wing and his cross was drilled wide by the goalscorer. Pereira almost struck again but his powerful effort was saved by Fabianski. At the other end, Coufal found himself in a decent position on the edge of the area but the defender’s half-volley flew wide of the target.
Fulham were looking increasingly comfortable with their lead and after a spell of possession the midfielder João Palhinha curled a shot from just outside the area narrowly past Fabianski’s far post. Willian then forced Fabianski into a save from a tight angle as Fulham pushed for a second goal before the break. Rodrigo Muniz almost extended their lead after latching on to the ball but his low shot lacked power and Fabianski saved the effort.
Fulham, who are now up to 12th, nearly struck again at the start of the second half with Muniz’s impudent flick forcing Fabianski into another save. Willian, so often at the heart of Fulham’s counterattacks, raced towards goal before offloading to Iwobi and his powerful shot was superbly pushed around the post by Fabianski.
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West Ham’s attacks were increasingly scarce but Paquetá’s header from a corner was blocked by Leno. The ball was eventually worked to Danny Ings but he thrashed his volley wastefully over the bar.
Fulham doubled their lead when Pereira again punished West Ham’s porous defence. Iwobi teed the ball up for the unmarked midfielder to sidefoot home from close range. Pereira had scored only once this season heading into this match but the Brazilian’s double increased his haul to three goals in his past two matches for Fulham at the London Stadium.
Marco Silva, Fulham’s manager, said: “It was a great win for us. To be honest, we really deserved the three points. West Ham started better than us but after we scored the first goal we started to control the game and got the confidence.”
There were 11 minutes of injury time, following a lengthy delay to take off West Ham’s 19-year-old debutant midfielder George Earthy for a head injury.
Moyes said: “I’m really disappointed for George. He’s being doing really well in training and the under‑21s. He started really well with the ball. He’s fine. We believe it’s a head knock. He’s awake, he’s gone to hospital but we think he’s OK.”
