HAMMERS OUT

Bayer break hearts of Moyes' boys

- Mike Walters

WEST HAM 1

B LEVERKUSEN 1

CLOSE, but no cigar. West Ham’s crusade in Europe is over, but it took a cruel deflection to extinguish the flame.

Hammers manager David Moyes, right, hoped the newly-crowned German champions would still be leggy after their title celebrations four days earlier, and for 45 minutes his wish was granted. Leverkusen were rocked by Michail Antonio’s early goal and stumbled around the Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park like a stag party at chucking-out time. Any sober assessment of the Irons’ 37th European tie in three seasons must include the admission that, over the two legs, they fell just short in the final third.

But it took former Celtic winger Jeremie Frimpong’s 89th-minute equaliser, which took a huge deflection off Aaron Cresswell, to seal Bayer’s passage into the Europa League semi-finals.