West Ham United will be without group-stage European football for their first season in the London Stadium after slumping to a 1-0 defeat against Astra Giurgiu in the second leg of their Europa League playoff this evening.
Having grabbed an away goal following a 1-1 draw in Romania last week, Slaven Bilic's side were unable to book progress after falling prey to Filipe Teixeira, who handed his side a 2-1 win on aggregate after scoring the only goal in East London.
The Hammers arguably started as the more positive of the two sides and they should have taken the lead when Reece Burke threaded a standout ball into the path of Jonathan Calleri, who could not find a way past Silviu Lung.
Bilic's charges continued to dominate the early play and they were unlucky again not to take a lead, this time as Pedro Obiang struck a long-range effort from midfield, which Lung did well to turn wide of his post down low.
An early period of quality soon faded for the Hammers, though, as they were continually frustrated by a resolute Astra, who slowly grew into the tie.
The game-changing moment was delivered by Marius Sumudica's men just before the half-time whistle, as Teixeira rounded off some memorable counter-attacking play to put the visitors 1-0 ahead before the break.
The Hammers should have grabbed a route back into the contest after the interval, but Calleri could only produce a poor header to meet a pinpoint cross from Gokhan Tore, allowing Lung to make another strong save when a goal seemed certain.
Bilic introduced youngster Ashley Fletcher up top in an attempt to inject some industry into the game, and the gamble almost paid off when the forward saw his instinctive effort kept out by the legs of Lung with just over 15 minutes to play.
Astra made it clear that defending was their prerogative in the final stages and they stood firm as the Hammers were unable to muster enough going forward to prevent their early exit from the competition.
Christopher Dodd
