West Ham United conceded a late leveller against Astra Giurgiu this evening to leave their Europa League playoff tie hanging in the balance at 1-1 ahead of next week's second leg.
The Hammers took the lead through a Mark Noble penalty deep in the first half, coming after a questionable piece of home defending, but they failed to see out the remainder of the match.
United did not look under any real pressure bar the odd shot from range, although Denis Alibec proved to be a real threat when introduced and blasted home seven minutes from time to leave the visitors with work to do if they are to progress in seven days' time.
Silviu Lung, one of three home starters to have formed part of Romania's Euro 2016 squad this summer, had to be alert to keep out a couple of headed attempts from debutant Jonathan Calleri in an entertaining opening 45 minutes.
Michail Antonio was really enjoying his more familiar starting role on the wing, creating a couple of chances for his side and seeing a header cleared away off the line 11 minutes in.
Attacking midfielder Filipe Teixeira was proving to be one of the hosts' more dangerous players, sending in one volleyed attempt from a difficult angle for Darren Randolph to collect after also drawing a foul out of Sam Byram.
Giurgiu's best chance of the first half fell the way of Takayuki Seto, who could only direct the ball wide when picked out completely unmarked inside the box by Alexandru Ionita.
Randolph, standing in for the rested Adrian this evening, had to make another couple of stops to deny the Black Devils an opener when collecting attempts down the middle from Ionita and Junior Morais, the latter at the second time of asking.
It was United who were to make the breakthrough right on the brink of half time when Cristian Sapunaru inexplicably handed Gokhan Tore's cross into the box, allowing Noble to convert his 28th penalty in West Ham colours out of the 31 taken.
Despite holding the lead, the Hammers struggled to get going for large parts of the second half as Astra threw bodies forward for set pieces, one of which Daniel Niculae headed right through the box.
The chances proved hard to come by as the game moved into the final 30 minutes or so, however, which suited West Ham as they looked to hold out with their first-leg lead intact.
Alibec was brought on to provide some added firepower in attack, and his movement certainly gave the Romanian outfit an added dimension when he got in behind only to send a shot right at Randolph.
There was to be a potentially pivotal moment in the tie in the closing 10 minutes when, 98 seconds after Antonio failed to convert a Marcus Browne pass at the back post, danger man Alibec turned James Collins at the front post up the other end and rifled the ball home.
Astra were the better side from that point on, as the Hammers again looked sloppy in the closing stages of a game just a few days on from their defeat to Chelsea, and it was they who were happier to hear the full-time whistle sound in Romania.
Daniel Lewis
