Aaron Cresswell upbeat over West Ham United's Europa League prospects

West Ham United defender Aaron Cresswell believes that his side are more than capable of advancing in the Europa League despite their draw against Astra Giurgiu at Upton Park.

The Hammers held a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Mauro Zarate and Enner Valencia, but the dismissal of James Collins changed the match and allowed the Romanian side to level the tie as Fernando Boldrin scored and Angelo Ogbonna then put the ball into his own net.

However, Cresswell is upbeat over his team's chances of progressing through to the next round of the competition.

He told the club's official website: "We were dominant in the first half and well in control of the game at 2-0, but the game changed when James Collins got sent off. I still thought we had to be stronger to see it out.

"It's not going to be easy going away to Romania and we've got Arsenal on the Sunday as well. We want to go as far as we can in the competition and we're going to try to do that."

West Ham play the next leg on Thursday, but first take on Werder Bremen in a pre-season friendly on Sunday.