Andriy Yarmolenko sealed a dramatic extra-time victory for West Ham in their Europa League last-16 tie with Sevilla.
A rocking London Stadium greeted the two teams with the Hammers fans providing a raucous atmosphere for their biggest game in well over a decade.
It was the hosts who started the brighter but Sevilla gained a foothold by the midway point of the first-half, and drew a superb diving stop out of Alphonse Areola to deny Youssef En-Nesyri’s shot on goal.
After 39 minutes, West Ham sent east London barmy with a goal that levelled the tie on aggregate. Michail Antonio worked well to create space in the left channel before clipping a cross onto Tomas Soucek’s head, the Czech providing a trademark finish at the far-post.
Soucek even popped up seconds after the second-half began to drive a shot right at Bono in the Sevilla goal.
West Ham settled into a positive rhythm in their pursuit of a second yet found their final ball lacking, Pablo Fornals wasting the best chance from the right by only picking out a defender with a low cross as attackers queued up for the finish.
With half the job done by the Hammers, extra-time was required and they came out the more positive team in the first period. Soucek was again a chief threat after Craig Dawson’s flick-on from a corner arrived at the far-post, but was headed wide by the midfielder.
The tension was rising as penalties loomed large and the fans began to wonder which team and player the stage was set for.
In fact, it was already written in the stars as Yarmolenko, on only his second game back from compassionate leave amid the invasion of his home country, popped up to turn a rebound home and secure the most famous of Hammers wins.
