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| Gift Orban of KAA Gent shields the ball from Angelo Ogbonna of West Ham United during the UEFA Europa Conference League quarterfinal first leg match between KAA Gent and West Ham United at Ghelamco Arena on April 13, 2023 in Gent, Belgium. |
West Ham remain well placed to make back-to-back European semi-finals despite seeing their 100 per cent winning run in the Europa Conference League ended by Gent.
The Hammers looked on course to make it 11 wins out of 11 in Europe this season when Danny Ings tapped home after the hosts were caught out by a quickly taken throw-in.
David Moyes’ side, Europa League semi-finalists last season, had to soak up waves of pressure in an intense quarter-final first leg in Belgium and Gent equalised after a clever touch and finish by Hugo Cuypers.
The hosts piled forward in search of a winner to take into next week’s return leg, with Gift Orban – who scored a hat-trick in 205 seconds in the last round – hitting the bar with a wonderful 82nd-minute acrobatic attempt.
There was drama deep in stoppage time when Gent’s Kamil Piatkowski was shown a red card for bringing down substitute Lucas Paqueta, but it was overturned after the referee watched the incident again on the pitchside monitor.
