For the first time since the 1980-81 season, West Ham are in European quarter-final action as they host Lyon tonight at the London Stadium.
It’s the first leg of the Europa League last-eight tie, which David Moyes’ side booked with an impressive showing against tournament specialists Sevilla in the previous round.
With a Premier League top-four spot looking somewhat out of reach for West Ham, winning the Europa League could prove to be their best hope of securing Champions League football next season.
While the Hammers have been impressive in the tournament so far this season, so too have Lyon. They cruised through their group before knocking out Porto to reach the last eight and they will be looking to take a positive result back to France.
The winners of the tie will face Barcelona in the semi-finals – the reward is an incredibly exciting one.
With kick-off at 8pm BST, follow all the action with Standard Sport’s LIVE blog below…
West Ham vs Lyon latest news
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GOAL! Ndombele gets Lyon level
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GOAL! Bowen puts the ten men ahead
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RED CARD! Cresswell sent off just before half-time
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West Ham team news: Fredericks keeps place
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Lyon team news: Dembele and Ndombele start
West Ham United FC 1 – 1 Olympique Lyonnais
FT: West Ham 1-1 Lyon
22:05 , Matt Verri
And West Ham hold on to earn a draw!
They had to work really hard for that, but all things considered it’s a great result for them.
All to play for in France.
22:04 , Matt Verri
90+7 mins: One, two, three huge tackles from Dawson in the space of a couple of minutes. Each wildly celebrated by the home fans.
22:02 , Matt Verri
90+5 mins: This referee might be the most unpopular man in London right now.
Bowen pressures Emerson, who is trying to see the ball out of play. West Ham man catches Emerson’s foot as he closes him down… yellow card shown.
22:00 , Matt Verri
90+3 mins: Aouar clips a cross into the box, loops up and Areola is off his line to claim and then tumble to the floor.
It’s then Operation Smack It As Far Up The Pitch As Possible.
21:57 , Matt Verri
90+1 mins: Eight minutes added on!
It may well even be more than that. Dawson is done receiving treatment after a clash of heads – he’s going to be fine to continue. We won’t be far off reaching the 100-minute mark.
21:55 , Matt Verri
88 mins: Antonio gets himself a yellow card for a sliding lunge on Ndombele. Bit of frustration in that.
Two minutes plus a fair amount of stoppage time to be played… West Ham need to get through this late period.
21:53 , Matt Verri
86 mins: West Ham break quickly with Antonio, who is tackled. Comes back to Bowen though… has Rice clear to his left but goes by himself.
Eventually it does come out to Rice, numbers still forward for the home side. And then it’s all paused as another pitch invader makes their way on. Ridiculous.
21:51 , Matt Verri
84 mins: Ndombele pings a ball over the top for Dembele to run onto, never getting there though.
Areola takes every second possible over eventually picking it up, and then launching the ball forward.
21:49 , Matt Verri
82 mins: Decent spell from West Ham, who have pushed numbers forward. Bowen’s cross is deflected straight to Lopes.
Lyon look to break while they have a bit more space, Ekambi cuts inside and goes for goal… high and wide.
21:46 , Matt Verri
79 mins: Paqueta’s powerful strike saved by Areola, again far from convincing. Back into the penalty area, this time his defenders can clear though.
Eight West Ham shirts camped on the edge of their own box.
21:43 , Matt Verri
77 mins: Great ball in, even better goalkeeping though. Lopes tips it away to safety, with Zouma waiting behind to head it home.
Any set-pieces in these final 15 minutes would be very welcome for West Ham.
21:43 , Matt Verri
76 mins: Lovely ball from Rice sets Fredericks away down the right wing.
Cross swung into the box, headed behind and it’s a corner for the Hammers. Could this be a big chance for them?
21:40 , Matt Verri
73 mins: Good defending from Fornals to win it back… West Ham can only lumped it back to Lyon though.
Home side really struggling to get out.
21:36 , Matt Verri
70 mins: Brief pause due to a pitch invader.
Lyon increasingly on top since that equaliser. Big, big 20 minutes in this time coming up.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
21:34 , Matt Verri
Keeping a clean sheet felt very important for West Ham tonight, that was foremost in Moyes’s mind ahead of this game.
They know how to keep teams out if they need to and it is vital it doesn’t get any worse than this tonight.
GOAL! West Ham 1-1 Lyon | Tanguy Ndombele 66′
21:33 , Matt Verri
LYON ARE LEVEL!
The former Tottenham man has got the equaliser. Tete’s low cross into the box is parried out by Areola, straight into the path off Ndombele via a deflected off Fredericks.
Simple finish and Lyon are back on terms.
21:31 , Matt Verri
64 mins: West Ham will be thrilled to see that.
Soucek clears a cross, it comes to Aouar and 30 yards out he decides to go for goal first time. Miles over the bar.
21:29 , Matt Verri
63 mins: ALMOST TWO!
Bowen with a wonderful run down the left wing, he looks up and swings a cross into Antonio who is free at the back post.
He and Lopes both sort of leave it to each other… ball runs away to safety.
Watch: Bowen scores massive goal
21:27 , Matt Verri
21:24 , Matt Verri
58 mins: Ndombele is getting closer with these strikes from distance.
Cuts across this one, again caught so sweetly… just swerves beyond the post. Fabianski looked worried.
Dan Kilpatrick at the London Stadium
21:22 , Matt Verri
What a response from West Ham to losing Cresswell. That goal should really open up this game. Lyon will presumably have a go with an extra man, which may suit West Ham to counter-attack through Antonio.
21:21 , Matt Verri
55 mins: Paqueta briefly looks to be in behind, but Lyon don’t make the most if it.
London Stadium bouncing now…. their side have something to hold onto.
GOAL! West Ham 1-0 Lyon | Jarrod Bowen 52′
21:19 , Matt Verri
INCREDIBLE! WEST HAM LEAD!
The Hammers want a penalty after Antonio goes down, but don’t get the decision.
Seconds later, the ball bobbles through into the path of Bowen, his shot then takes a deflection too and it bounces over the goalkeeper and into the net!
21:16 , Matt Verri
50 mins: Gusto swings a cross into the box, Dawson up well to beat Dembele in the air and head the ball away.
Lyon quickly back on the ball though. Gusto has another chance, this time pulls it back to Paqueta. Shot blocked.
21:14 , Matt Verri
48 mins: Going to be a tough half for the referee – home fans screaming for every decision.
Hammers sitting deep as you’d expect. Will be really difficult for them to break now, with one less attacker on the pitch.
Back underway!
21:12 , Matt Verri
Benrahma off, Johnson on at at the break for West Ham.
21:06 , Matt Verri
David Moyes was shown a yellow card for his complaints at the end of the half.
Didn’t look like he particularly cared. Going to be a lot of anger in that West Ham dressing room – up to Moyes to get them back and focused on the task at hand.
Hammers down to 10…
20:59 , Matt Verri
HT: West Ham 0-0 Lyon
20:56 , Matt Verri
Goalless at the break, with Moyes waiting on the touchline for the officials.
Hammers had some bright moments on the break, while Lyon dominated the ball. Looked to be going into the break with a relatively uneventful half behind them… until the red card.
Massive decision, feels a harsh one too. Cresswell off though and West Ham really up against it now.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
20:54 , Matt Verri
That has turned the game on it’s head. Moyes was already upset with the officials but it has gone through the roof now. West Ham had created the better chances but that is a huge loss for both legs.
20:54 , Matt Verri
Emerson’s free-kick flicks off the top of the wall and loops over for a corner. West Ham desperate to get to half-time.
Falls for Dembele, he goes for goal and it’s blocked. Referee then blows for a foul and that should be the break.
20:52 , Matt Verri
The slightest of touches on the shoulder of Dembele and he went tumbling to the ground. Replays show the striker giving his teammates a wink straight after.
Foul… questionable. Goalscoring opportunity… hugely questionable. The decision stands though.
RED CARD!
20:51 , Matt Verri
Cresswell has been shown a straight red for a challenge on Dembele! About five seconds before half-time.
Dembele had been played in, Cresswell had a slight pull of the shirt… red card. Was that a clear goalscoring opportunity?
20:49 , Matt Verri
45+1 mins: Two minutes added on at the end of the half.
Free-kick West Ham… ironic cheers go up around the stadium. Poor ball into the box though and Lyon can easily clear the danger.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
20:48 , Matt Verri
Moyes and the West Ham crowd are getting rather exasperated by the refereeing so far. The game has been very stop start so far.
20:46 , Matt Verri
43 mins: Corner headed away, Rice looks to set Benrahma away on the counter… pass is blocked.
Eventually it does go out to the Algeria, he’s fairly certain he’s won a corner for his side. Referee disagrees. Very much should have been a corner – Aouar kicked it out of play.
20:45 , Matt Verri
41 mins: Terrible header from Rice and Emerson can drive at the West Ham defence.
Nobody comes out to quickly close him down so he goes for goal… not a great effort but flicks off Zouma and behind for a corner.
20:42 , Matt Verri
38 mins: Another long period of Lyon possession, but West Ham are solid in their shape.
French side struggling to do much when they have the ball for this amount of time – comfortably knocking it around at the back but that’s it really.
20:38 , Matt Verri
35 mins: West Ham players, fans and even David Moyes very unimpressed. Boateng goes down after he doesn’t get a free-kick decision and eventually the referee stops play so he can receive treatment.
Hammers had no intention of kicking the ball out, wasn’t a head injury either.
20:36 , Matt Verri
32 mins: Well-worked corner from West Ham.
Played back to Rice on the edge of the box, running onto it with his left foot. Focuses on getting it on target which he does, but not a lot of pace on the shot. Easy save.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
20:34 , Matt Verri
Michail Antonio has enjoyed bringing his brand of football to the European stage this season and is already forming a good battle with the Lyon defenders.
The striker has turned them a couple of times but just needs more claret and blue shirts around him when he breaks through.
20:33 , Matt Verri
30 mins: Big chance for West Ham and they can’t make the most of it.
Ball is swept out to Benrahma and he has so much space to drive forward into. Cuts inside into the box, looks to slide it to Cresswell on the overlap who had made a great run. Left-back would have been in, but Gusto reads it.
20:32 , Matt Verri
28 mins: Free-kick won by Antonio, chance for the West Ham centre-backs to come up.
Bowen clips it to the back post, Zouma goes up to challenge with Gusto. Lyon full-back gets the decision as Zouma catches him with an elbow.
20:30 , Matt Verri
26 mins: Poor ball forward but Rice can’t control and Dembele can get Lyon back on the attack.
Patient build-up, until Ndombele finds himself in space and decides to go for goal 25 yards out. Decent strike, but always drifting wide of the post.
20:27 , Matt Verri
24 mins: Benrahma skips towards the byline, looks to stand up a cross to Antonio at the back post.
Over him and runs away for a throw-in… offside flag goes up anyway. Not much going for the cross at all!
20:25 , Matt Verri
21 mins: Not far off 70% possession for Lyon in the opening 20 minutes or so.
But there’s already been a couple of occasions where West Ham have quickly countered and caused them problems.
20:22 , Matt Verri
18 mins: Dembele holds the ball up well and West Ham are struggling to clear their lines. Cross comes in, Rice is there to intercept.
Cleared up the pitch and Antonio’s header finds Fornals. He plays it back to Antonio who goes for goal, deflected away.
20:19 , Matt Verri
16 mins: There is the best moment for the home side.
Dawson with a brilliant ball out to Benrahma and he’s in behind. Increasingly tight angle, he eventually gets the shot away and it’s saved comfortably enough.
20:18 , Matt Verri
15 mins: Is this going to be West Ham’s first promising moment of the match?
No. Soucek catches Faivre slightly high and Lyon get the free-kick. Would be fair to say Faivre very much made the most of it.
Dan Kilpatrick at the London Stadium
20:17 , Matt Verri
Lyon may be struggling in Ligue 1 but they’re an experience European side, and controlling the early running here.
Tottenham reject Tanguy Ndombele has seen plenty of the ball so far as Lyon probe for openings.
20:14 , Matt Verri
10 mins: Aouar tries his luck from long-range, doesn’t get hold of it at all and it’s easily blocked.
Paqueta is then played in behind, fires it across the face of goal and Dembele very nearly turns it in! So much pace on the cross, the striker couldn’t react quickly enough.
Real scare for West Ham.
20:12 , Matt Verri
8 mins: West Ham yet to offer anything from an attacking perspective, but you feel like they will have some dangerous moments.
Lyon seeing pretty much all of the ball – Antonio and Bowen ready to pounce.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
20:09 , Matt Verri
It’s another ferocious atmosphere in east London this evening. Lyon have been susceptible on the counter under Bosz this season and that will suit West Ham to a tee, especially with Bowen back in the side.
20:08 , Matt Verri
5 mins: West Ham press high but Lyon play through them and there is room for them to come forward.
Worked wide to Gusto, he looks to play the cross into the box but it’s over everyone and straight out of play.
20:06 , Matt Verri
3 mins: Plenty of early position for Lyon, who have settled nicely into the match.
Fredericks then dives into a challenge on Aouar, easy decision for the referee. Sent long towards Dembele but he can’t hold it up.
KICK-OFF!
20:03 , Matt Verri
We are underway at the London Stadium.
Nearly time!
20:00 , Matt Verri
19:57 , Matt Verri
Here we go then…
Light show, fans holding up claret and blue… paper bags? Whatever they are it looks good and there’s a brilliant atmosphere in the stadium.
Jack Rosser at the London Stadium
19:49 , Matt Verri
Warm-ups almost done…
19:42 , Matt Verri
Moyes: Crazy to think about Barcelona
19:36 , Matt Verri
David Moyes says it would be “crazy” to look past Lyon with a potential Europa League meeting with Barcelona looming.
West Ham or Lyon have been drawn to face either Barcelona or Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-final as they bid to reach the final in Seville.
Fans in east London have been chanting about a tie with Barcelona since the start of the season, but Moyes insists that those within the club are keeping cool heads.
“[We’re] not thinking beyond Lyon at the moment,” said Moyes.
“We take every competition seriously, treat them all with the same importance. This one obviously is more special, to be among teams we’ve not had for years is really important. Two years ago they were in a Champions League semi-final. We’d be crazy to think any further than this first game.
“We have not even talked a minute more than Lyon. How could we dare? We wouldn’t. It is too big a game, too big a club that we are playing.”
Areola: We need to focus on ourselves
19:27 , Matt Verri
Alphonse Areola has namechecked a number of Lyon players to watch out for tonight as the Hammers look to secure a first-leg lead.
“They have a few players that will be big for them in the quarter-finals,” he said.
“They have Anthony Lopes as goalkeeper and he is a big part of their success. I would also mention Lucas Paqueta, the playmaker, as someone we need to contain.
“But I think we need to focus on looking after ourselves and not worry about the opposition. Of course, we are watching clips of how they play and how they will attack us, but it’s more important that we focus on what we have to do.”
19:19 , Matt Verri
About 40 minutes to go until kick-off at the London Stadium.
Already been a number of superb West Ham performances here this season – are we going to get another one tonight?
Lyon have arrived
19:08 , Matt Verri
18:59 , Matt Verri
Just the one change for West Ham then – Areola comes in to replace Fabianski in goal.
Fredericks keeps his place, with Johnson and Coufal both on the bench. Otherwise it’s as you’d expect, with Antonio, Benrahma, Fornals and Antonio all starting. Yarmolenko may well be required off the bench though, as he has been in recent weeks.
Lyon team
18:53 , Matt Verri
Starting XI: Lopes, Gusto, Boateng, Lukeba, Emerson, Mendes, Ndombele, Faivre, Paqueta, Aouar, Dembele
Subs: Pollersbeck, Bonnevie, Da Silva, Denayer, Henrique, Dubois, Reine-Adelaide, Barcola, Kadewere, Tete, Ekambi.
West Ham team
18:48 , Matt Verri
Starting XI: Areola; Fredericks, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio
Subs: Fabianski, Randolph, Alese, Diop, Coufal, Masuaku, Johnson, Kral, Noble, Vlasic, Yarmolenko, Perkins
Where it will be won and lost
18:43 , Matt Verri
West Ham are back in Europa League action against Lyon tonight.
There is a sense of real occasion once again at London Stadium as another sold-out crowd prepares to witness the Hammers’ first European quarter-final tie since 1981.
West Ham will be hoping for a repeat of last month’s heroics, when Andriy Yarmolenko’s extra-time effort secured an unforgettable 2-1 aggregate victory over six-time Europa League winners Sevilla in the last-16.
Here, Standard Sport’s Jack Rosser looks at three key talking points for David Moyes’ side in what is one of the biggest matches in the club’s history.
Click here for the analysis of tonight’s match
Visitors out for a walk this afternoon…
18:30 , Matt Verri
London Stadium becoming a fortress
18:21 , Matt Verri
Aaron Cresswell has warned Lyon that they are stepping into West Ham‘s new fortress tonight.
A record-breaking home crowd pushed David Moyes’s side to a historic last-16, second-leg win over Sevilla last month and tickets for this evening’s encounter, a first European quarter-final for 41 years, sold out in days.
After all the tumult of the move from Upton Park to Stratford and the 3-0 defeat to Burnley which saw fans storm the pitch four years ago, the London Stadium now feels like a very different place.
Cresswell said: “The progression the club’s made over the last two years, it’s kind of our fortress now and teams have found it hard to play there.
“Certainly the atmosphere against Sevilla was special, and hopefully we can replicate that again.”
Hammers team-mate Michail Antonio added: “The Sevilla game just felt like they [the fans] were sucking the ball into their net.
“Sevilla are a very composed team, play great football. But you could see it. They couldn’t play, couldn’t deal with the pressure and the atmosphere. The fans were all over them and then we were because the fans were pushing us.”
Stage is set
18:13 , Matt Verri
Prediction
18:06 , Matt Verri
The Hammers relish these sort of big games but it would be a surprise if they were able to end the tie after just 90 minutes.
A narrow home win looks on the cards, which would set up next week’s second leg in France perfectly.
West Ham to win, 1-0.
Lyon team news
17:58 , Matt Verri
The visitors are sweating over Cameroonian forward Karl Toko Ekambi, who sat out the weekend win due to illness.
Lyon beat Angers 3-2 in that match, though they are still down in ninth in Ligue 1 after a disappointing season domestically on the whole.
West Ham team news
17:50 , Matt Verri
Manuel Lanzini is suspended for the match having accrued three bookings earlier in the competition. In any case, his fitness is in doubt following a car crash last week.
Angelo Ogbonna (knee) misses out, though Ben Johnson (hamstring) could return with Vladimir Coufal also training. Cup goalkeeper Alphonse Areola should return in between the sticks.
West Ham predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Areola; Johnson, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio.
How to watch West Ham vs Lyon
17:41 , Matt Verri
TV channel: Tonight’s game will be televised live on BT Sport 1 and Ultimate, with coverage beginning at 7.15pm.
Live stream: BT Sport subscribers will also be able to watch the match online via the BT Sport website or app.
Live blog: You can also follow all the action right here us!
Good evening!
17:32 , Matt Verri
Hello and welcome to Standard Sport’s LIVE coverage of West Ham vs Lyon in the Europa League.
It’s a huge night for the Hammers, who have home advantage in the quarter-final first leg, as they look to keep their European adventure going.
With Dan Kilpatrick and Jack Rosser at the London Stadium, we’ll have all the latest updates and team news ahead of kick-off, which comes at 8pm BST.
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