West Ham were made to pay for their profligacy as Denis Alibec scored a late equaliser to earn Astra Giurgiu a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their Europa League qualifier in Romania.
West Ham had chances to add to their lead after Mark Noble gave them the lead from the penalty spot just before half-time following Christian Sapunaru hand-ball in the box but failed to take them. The Irons skipper sent the Astra keeper the wrong way to get what might prove to be a crucial away goal.
The Romanian side caused their visitors problems on troublesome surface and late on Slaven Bilic's men failed to deal with a Astra corner allowing Alibec to grab an equaliser.