West Ham were knocked out of the Europa League, despite threatening to end Bayer Leverkusen’s season-long unbeaten run in a 1-1 draw.
David Moyes’ side went into the second leg of the quarter-final tie at the London Stadium needing to overturn a two-goal deficit, after they were beaten in Germany a week ago, and they threatened to do just that.
Michail Antonio pulled one back in a brilliant first-half performance from West Ham, as Leverkusen, crowned Bundesliga champions on Sunday, looked increasingly rattled.
The legs went out of the Hammers after the break though, and Leverkusen ensured they did not fall to their first defeat of the season when Jeremie Frimpong’s deflected effort made it 3-1 on aggregate late on, extending the unbeaten streak to 44 matches.
Few gave David Moyes' side any chance of overturning the deficit against one of the best teams in Europe, even if they were a little jaded after celebrating their first Bundesliga crown on Sunday.
At the very least West Ham knew they needed a fast start, and both the team and the crowd were instantly unrecognisable from the meek 2-0 home defeat by Fulham four days earlier.
The first shot in anger did come from Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz, whose 20-yard effort was acrobatically saved by Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski despite it being his 39th birthday.
But the first goal was always going to have to come from West Ham if they were going to make anything resembling a contest out of it, and it arrived in the 14th minute when Jarrod Bowen swung a cross into the box.
Antonio got above Leverkusen centre-half Odilon Kossounou and in front of keeper Matej Kovar to guide his header into the net as a raucous home crowd genuinely started to believe something special could be in the air.
It was almost two four minutes later when Mohammed Kudus shook off the attentions of Kossounou and hit a deflected shot which Kovar did well to smother.
It was enough to rattle Alonso, who removed Kossounou from the firing line with less than half an hour gone, the Ivory Coast defender heading straight down the tunnel.
Tempers flared between the benches moments later with the Hammers' mild-mannered first-team coach Billy McKinlay sent off along with Sebastian Parrilla from Leverkusen's bench.
Still West Ham attacked and Edson Avarez's shot looked goalbound until it hit Antonio's backside, with Kovar holding Bowen's follow-up.
Alonso made two further changes at the break, with big guns Victor Boniface and Frimpong called into action.
After the break Bowen, still a lively presence despite only passing a late fitness test, robbed Piero Hincapie in the area only to pull his shot across goal.
But Leverkusen were finding their rhythm. Frimpong should have wrapped up the tie with 10 minutes left when he raced through one-on-one with Fabianski, only to lift his shot way over the crossbar.
But with two minutes left Frimpong did strike, his shot taking a huge deflection off Aaron Cresswell to end West Ham's European adventure.
