David Moyes believes West Ham will play better in the second leg of their Europa League tie with Lyon, admitting the pressure is still on after a “resilient” first-leg showing.
West Ham’s European adventure continued with the first leg of their quarter-final against Lyon. It ended as a 1-1 draw after goals from Jarrod Bowen for the hosts and Tanguy Ndombele for the visitors.
Before those goals, Aaron Cresswell was sent off for a last-man challenge on Moussa Dembele for West Ham. It means he will be unavailable for the return fixture in France next week, for which the tie is in the balance.
Some felt the decision to dismiss Cresswell was harsh. Moyes received a yellow card himself for his protests when the players and officials were returning to the changing rooms at half-time.
But he was not willing to comment on the referee after the game, even if he maintained VAR should have had a say.
Moyes told BT Sport: “Firstly, you need to look at the foul on Jarrod Bowen in the build-up [to the red card].
“I hoped VAR would look at that as it is in the same phase of play.
“I’m certainly not going to comment about the referee. I will answer other questions but I am not going to bother with the referee tonight.”
Moyes believes West Ham ‘in with a good shout’
Accordingly, Moyes went on to praise the spirit his side showed with 10 men. He knew they had to do more defending than attacking, but believes they are still in contention to reach the semi-finals.
He added: “We were really resilient in the second half. We came in at the break knowing with 10 men it was a difficult job. We stuck at it and had one or two opportunities ourselves.
“Overall it was more of a backs-to-the-wall performance second half but we are still in with a good shout.
“I don’t know if the pressure is off because we want to qualify. Generally the players stuck at it tonight. We didn’t play well and we can only play much better next week.”
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