West Ham United boss David Moyes was pleased to have seen a 'resilient' defensive performance after his side earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw with 10 men against Lyon in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie on Thursday.
Aaron Cresswell was sent off on the stroke of half time for bringing down Lyon captain Moussa Dembele, with the referee deeming the left-back to have denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
Despite beginning the second half a man down, Jarrod Bowen broke the deadlock at the London Stadium eight minutes after the break, before Tottenham Hotspur loanee Tanguy Ndombele restored parity for the visitors with a close-range strike in the 66th minute.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Moyes was not impressed with West Ham's first-half performance, but he commended their defensive efforts to claim a draw, and believes that all is still to play for in the second leg.
"The second half was good because we showed resilience with ten men," the Scotsman said. "That was the pleasing part of the performance, but I wasn't pleased with the football in the first half and I wasn't pleased with the way we started the game.
"Different circumstances at different times didn't go for us tonight but overall, look, it's a good draw. It was always going to be hard to do much better than that – we came away with a 1-0 defeat at Sevilla, and we've got a draw in this game now to give ourselves a good chance.
"I thought technically [Lyon] were very good – they kept hold of the ball, passed it through midfield and made it difficult for us. We will need to reassess a little bit of that, but overall I just didn't like the way we played with the ball in the first half.
"Second half we didn't have much of the ball, but if anything we probably made more chances with 10 men than we did with 11 in the first half, so that tells you a little bit about how I thought the first half went.
Moyes added: "We'll certainly take encouragement to Lyon. We're right in this tie and we'll go there to try to win the game. We'll give ourselves every opportunity and the players have done a great job in the second half to make sure we have a chance."
West Ham will now prepare for Sunday's Premier League trip to Brentford before travelling to the Parc Olympique Lyonnais for the second leg of their Europa League tie next Thursday.
Oliver Thomas
