West Ham weathered a late storm in Belgium to secure a 1-1 draw against Gent in the Europa Conference League quarter-final first leg on Thursday night.
Hammers striker Danny Ings tapped home his first European goal in first-half stoppage time after Jarrod Bowen reacted quickest to a throw-in, minutes after Nayef Aguerd's strike was correctly disallowed for handball.
But the dominant hosts deservedly levelled via Hugo Cuypers after the break, and hit the crossbar after Gift Orban's brilliant improvised overhead kick.
Tarik Tissoudali missed a glorious opening for Gent, before there was late drama as Kamil Piatkowski was shown a red card for sliding into Lucas Paqueta, who was one-on-one - before the decision was correctly reversed by VAR because he won the ball.