Hammers lose in Slovenia

West Ham were beaten 2-1 by NK Domzale as Matic Crnic scored twice to give the Slovenian underdogs a narrow advantage after the first leg of the Europa League third qualifying round tie.

Domzale took the lead against the run of play after 11 minutes on Thursday night when a shot cannoned off the arm of debutant Havard Nordtveit and the referee pointed to the spot.

It was a contentious decision, with the centre-back arguing that he was unable to get out of the way, but the decision had been made and Crnic calmly dispatched the penalty beyond Adrian.

West Ham crashed out of the Europa League at this same stage last season, but there were no signs of nerves after going behind and it took the Hammers just seven minutes to draw level. A spot of head tennis inside the area resulted in Domzale goalkeeper clearing out Winston Reid with a punch to the head, prompting the second penalty of the game – and a far less contentious one.

The ever-reliable Mark Noble sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to make it 1-1, but West Ham …

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