The tie is finely balanced at the midway point but David Moyes knows, even with 11 men for 90 minutes, West Ham will need to produce and maintain a far higher intensity in next week’s second leg if they are to keep their Europa League dream alive.
While it was easy to focus on Aaron Cresswell’s harsh red card late in the first half last night, and Moyes’s correct claim that Jarrod Bowen should have received a free kick immediately before having been barged over by Houssem Aouar, the reality is West Ham were not at their best in a tepid opening half against a technically superior Lyon team.“Not a good performance,” the manager said. “Poor, but we showed good resilience with our performance when down to 10 men.”
The manager refused to engage with any question around referee Felix Zwayer apart from repeatedly referring to the Bowen foul that was not given. And it is fair to argue that the sense of injustice had revved the hosts up in the early portion of the second period.
