West Ham United’s career in Europe ended in the semi-finals after they were knocked out of the European League by Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday evening.
Hammers traveled to Germany late 2-1 from last week’s first leg in London, but were unable to turn it over at Deutsche Bank Park’s fully filled stadium.
Their hopes of achieving anything were dashed in the first 45 minutes as Aaron Cresswell was sent off early for denying him a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Then Rafael Santos scored the only goal of the match in the 26th minute, and swept the net to consolidate the superiority of his hosts.
The odds were stacked against West Ham before kick-off: no away team had won the Europa League semi-final after losing the first leg at home; Eintracht have won all nine previous UEFA encounters in which they scored an away win in the first leg.
Overall, West Ham’s performance lacked the usual energy as they failed to upset the hosts for extended periods.
Their only path seemed to be through set pieces, with Kurt Zouma’s header effort going away as soon as they got there.
David Moyes was also sent off for a furious outburst on the touchline. The Scotsman returned the ball to the ball boy, which led to a clash between the two benchers.
In the end, Bouri’s goal gave the hosts a 1-0 win and a 3-1 win on aggregate.
