Premier League: West Ham United 2 Burnley 2 - match report

Danny Ings stepped from the bench to salvage a dramatic late, late leveller for West Ham United against his former club at rain-swept London Stadium.
 
With basement boys Burnley sailing into a two-goal interval lead through on-loan Chelsea striker David Datro Fofana and a Konstantinos Mavropanos own goal, the Hammers were up the creek without a paddle following a forlorn first half.
 
But with Lucas Paquetá pulling a goal back moments after the restart, David Moyes’ men navigated their way to a hard-fought point thanks to Ings, who struck one minute into second-half stoppage time.
 
The West Ham substitute, who spent four seasons at Turf Moor during the early, formative days of his career, certainly enjoyed an eventful quarter-hour run-out having had an earlier strike ruled out for offside before scoring and then rocking the Burnley crossbar in the dying moments, too.
 
Back-to-back victories over Brentford and Everton meant the Hammers had kicked off in seventh spot, 13 places and 29 points above a Burnley side skippered by former Academy of Football youngster, Josh Cullen.
 
But while Moyes’ boys looked to have turned the corner on the domestic front, a one-goal defeat at SC Freiburg in Thursday evening’s last-16, first-leg had left their UEFA Europa League campaign in the balance.
 
Following that German reverse at Stadion am Wolfswinkel - and with one eye on this week’s London Stadium return - the Scot made a quartet of changes as Alphonse Areola, Nayef Aguerd, Kalvin Phillips and Aaron Cresswell came in for substitutes Łukasz Fabianski, Kurt Zouma and Edson Álvarez plus an injured Emerson (groin).
 
With torrential rain falling from the East End skies, there was an equally damp start to this contest when Burnley – having started with far more energy than the Hammers – took the lead with just eight minutes on the clock.
 
Unwittingly playing a one-two off Aguerd’s shin pads inside West Ham’s half, Fofana advanced forward before letting fly with an unstoppable 30-yarder that steamed through the Stratford showers before arrowing under Areola’s left-hand angle.
 
The game had already begun in a strangely subdued, eerie atmosphere and apart from the collective roar of the hardy travelling support huddled into the bottom tier of the Sir Trevor Brooking Stand, that sensational strike by the Ivory Coast man meant the silence around a stunned stadium was now deafening.
 
Rock-bottom Burnley had arrived in the capital with just three wins and four draws from their previous 27 matches to date but despite suffering a fourth successive defeat against Bournemouth last Sunday, Vincent Kompany still opted for an unchanged side.
 
Now, thanks to their on-loan Blues’ striker’s third goal in Burnley colours, the visitors had a rare foothold and, apart from seeing Jarrod Bowen meekly head wide and Mavropanos surge forward before unleashing an angled 15-yarder behind, they were barely troubled by the listless, lacklustre Hammers.
 
Thwarted by a trio of offside flags and frustrated by the visitors’ cynical time-wasting antics, the locals were certainly getting restless, while skipper Tomáš Souček took his yellow card count to half-a-dozen for the season for tugging back Wilson Odobert. 
 
If a forlorn first half had not already been bad enough for West Ham, then things took a further turn for the worse in stoppage time, when Jacob Bruun Larsen played in overlapping captain Cullen, whose low byline cross was prodded beyond his own keeper Areola by the luckless Mavropanos to double Burnley’s advantage and send disgruntled boos echoing around the ground.
 
Things had to change. And they did.
 
On came Álvarez and Michail Antonio for Phillips and James Ward-Prowse and, some 30 seconds of the restart, Moyes reaped an instant dividend as his reshuffled side immediately responded with a goal.
 
Winning his duel with Maxime Estève, Paquetá found himself sprinting clear of the chasing Cullen and Dara O’Shea and, with only keeper James Trafford now standing in his path, the Brazilian comfortably slotted home his sixth goal of the season from eight yards.
 
Now the Hammers had hope and, with the Claret and Blue army finally waking from their induced slumber, Mavropanos tried to atone with a close-range header that deflected wide before Bowen’s goalbound shot was blocked by teammate Paquetá, who then curled over from 20 yards.
 
Although the Clarets were now under pressure for the first time, they still found a way to break forward with Fofana, substitute Josh Brownhill – on for Bruun Larsen – and Vitinho each going close.
 
Midway through the second period, Mohammed Kudus looked all set to level, doing everything right to carve out an opening for himself but somehow the Ghanaian scooped high over from eight yards when it would surely have been easier to hit the target.
 
Antonio was also thwarted by the base of the near post before an Álvarez range-finder flew high into the Bobby Moore stand and having rugby-tackled the breaking Bowen on halfway, Sander Berge followed substitute Hannes Delcroix – on for Odobert – and Lorenz Assignon into referee Darren England’s notebook.
 
With the clock quickly ticking down, Ings was summoned from the bench to face his former club as Aguerd retired and, in the frenzy to find a leveller, a minor dust-up saw bookings for Estéve and Paquetá, who was cautioned for the ninth time this season.
 
Then, with just minutes remaining, Ings looked to have levelled when he lofted over Trafford from eight yards after Paquetá’s curling free-kick had been chested into his path by Antonio, only for a Video Assistant Referee review to subsequently adjudge the Jamaican international substitute offside in making the assist.
 
Not to be denied, though, the former Burnley goal-getter would still have the last word two minutes into additional time, when Kudus got beyond Assignon down the left and chipped the ball to Ings who expertly sent a swivelling angled volley beyond the flying Trafford from 12 yards.