West Ham fall to first-leg defeat in Europa League semi-final

West Ham's chances of reaching a first European final for 46 years hang in the balance after they lost 2-1 to Eintracht Frankfurt in Thursday's Europa League semi-final first leg at the London Stadium.

Eintracht Frankfurt wing-back Ansgar Knauff headed the visitors in front after 50 seconds, but Michail Antonio's close-range finish (21) brought West Ham level.

The German side regained the lead in the second half through Daichi Kamada (54) to secure just their second win in nine games and extend their unbeaten run in the competition.

The two sides will meet for the second leg in Frankfurt next Thursday, with the winner playing either RB Leipzig or Rangers in the final on May 18 in Seville.

It was a nightmare start for West Ham at the London Stadium as Knauff headed in Rafael Borre's cross at the back post after some slack defending by Pablo Fornals.

Jarrod Bowen was presented with a gilt-edged opportunity to bring West Ham level after 14 minutes, but struck the post after being played through on goal by Tomas Soucek.

West Ham, though, did not have to wait long for another opportunity as Kurt Zouma nodded down a free-kick to Antonio, who poked the ball home to level the tie to the delight of an electric home crowd.

It ended a run of 10 games without a goal for the striker, who last scored in West Ham's 3-1 defeat at Southampton in the FA Cup on March 2.

Frankfurt continued to pose a threat on the break and nearly went ahead through Knauff again, only for the Frankfurt wing-back to rush his finish and fire over from inside the area after a half clearance by Aaron Cresswell.

Knauff, on loan from Borussia Dortmund, was given plenty of licence to get forward and caused West Ham a lot of problems as Frankfurt overloaded the