Gianluca Scamacca comes off bench to earn West Ham victory at Anderlecht

Gianluca Scamacca came off the bench to fire West Ham to a 1-0 win at Anderlecht and put them in firm control of Group B in the Europa Conference League.

The Italian scored with a clinical finish in the 79th minute to make it three wins from three matches of the third-tier competition for the Londoners and effectively put one foot in the knockout stages.

It needed the £35 million signing to do the damage nine minutes after coming on, but the Hammers could have had it wrapped up long before that in Belgium.

David Moyes’ side wasted a host of chances, with Said Benrahma guilty of several glaring misses, but they got the job done and return to London unscathed ahead of Sunday’s derby with Fulham.

Moyes made nine changes to his side from the one that beat Wolves on Saturday and after a quiet opening 15 minutes, the game burst into life as both sides had chances within a minute.

Anderlecht had the first opportunity as they cut the Hammers open down the right and the ball fell to former Wolves striker Fabio Silva, but his goalbound shot was blocked by his teammate Francis Amuzu.

WEST HAM PLAYER RATINGS: Lukas Fabianski 7 – Called into action early on when he tipped over from Podence, and again wide to his right from Otto. Rarely threatened thereafter. Getty

Moments later Benrahma thought he had scored for the visitors as a loose ball fell to him at the far post and he picked out the top corner but Amadou Diawara made an important goal-line clearance with his head.

Benrahma had two more chances before the break, first as he saw an effort blocked from Vladminir Coufa’s cutback and then skying a glaring chance when Jarrod Bowen put it on a plate for him after a surge down the right.

The former Brentford attacker had another