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		</div><p>West Ham drew a blank in the Black Forest as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 meeting with Freiburg.</p>
<p>Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta missed golden opportunities to give the Hammers a lead to take back to the London Stadium next week.</p>
<p>But instead they will have to come from behind after they were hit by a late sucker punch from Freiburg substitute Michael Gregoritsch.</p>
<p>They were also denied what looked a clear penalty for handball in stoppage time after the referee refused to change his decision despite checking the pitchside monitor.</p>
<p>Nine months to the day since they lifted the Europa Conference League trophy in Prague, West Ham were back on their continental travels, and against familiar opponents.</p>
<p>Freiburg were the visitors to east London for the final group game just 84 days ago when a 2-0 win secured top spot for the Hammers.</p>
<p>West Ham also won 2-1 on their previous visit to south-west Germany in October, and travelled buoyed by back-to-back Premier League wins following a below-par start to the year.</p>
<p>Boss David Moyes, keen on another strong run in Europe, named his strongest line-up with cup goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski replacing Alphonse Areola in the only change from Saturday’s victory at Everton.</p>
<p>West Ham were, as usual, happy to let their opponents have the ball but Freiburg gave them a scare when Roland Sallai’s through-ball split their defence.</p>
<p>Fortunately, Lucas Holer hit his shot into the ground and straight at Fabianski.</p>
<p>Moments later Bowen made a horrible mess of West Ham’s only chance of the first half.</p>
<p>The forward, who has not scored in Europe since his famous last-minute winner against Fiorentina in the Czech capital, peeled away at the far post to meet a Mohammed Kudus cross but badly fluffed his volley.</p>
<p>At the start of the second half Ghana winger Kudus cut inside Freiburg full-back only to curl his shot straight at keeper Noah Atubolu.</p>
<p>Bowen then scampered down the right wing and crossed for Paqueta, who also scuffed a volley wide.</p>
<p>A James Ward-Prowse corner should have been converted by Konstantinos Mavropanos but the centre-half’s header grazed the far post.</p>
<p>Paqueta then met another superb cross from Kudus but the finish, a simple header, again did not match the quality of the delivery, before Atubolu did well to tip Bowen’s curler wide.</p>
<p>Tomas Soucek also fired straight at Atubolu and Bowen just missed Aaron Cresswell’s cross before Freiburg struck.</p>
<p>A sloppy pass from Edson Alvarez gifted them possession and when Sallai took aim from the edge of the area, his wayward shot was tapped in by Gregoritsch.</p>
<p>Four minutes into stoppage time the ball struck the arm of Freiburg youngster Noah Weisshaupt in the area but after a long VAR check, referee Alejandro Hernandez checked the replay and stuck to his guns.</p>
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