Slaven Bilic: ‘Enner Valencia could have suffered serious injury’

Valencia was starting his first game since returning from Copa America duty.

“And this is the reason I am unhappy tonight. I’m sure he will be a massive asset to us”.

Already short of strikers, West Ham will push forward with a move for Atletico Madrid’s Raul Jimenez after Valencia’s withdrawal against Astra.

The Wales defender collected two cautions in quick succession – the third Hammers player to be sent off in five qualifying ties.

“It was a very frustrating evening because we played well until the moment we had a player sent off. We were dominating the game”, Bilic said.

Slaven Bilic’s side are desperately short of firepower and face going into their opening Premier League match of the season, at Arsenal on Sunday week, with just one regular first-choice front man in Diafra Sakho. It was a professional foul from Collins and I can’t blame him in that situation.

The Hammers have supported new manager Slaven Bilic by adding a number of players over the summer, including midfielder Dimitri Payet from Marseille.

“I wasn’t happy with that and I reacted with him (the referee)”. “But if you ask if we are mad and upset I would say no because we have got to try and win on Thursday night and then we have got Arsenal on Sunday”. William, Rick Boldrin, Seto will lead the line for Astra but goals are hard to come by for Astra and they may struggle against this defensively sound West Ham team.

“We are in contact but it’s not for the media yet,” he said.

Noble was impressed after playing with Payet for the first time, saying: “He has a lot of quality”. In the second half, especially after the red card, we did much better and we controlled the game and the result is a good one for us.

Southampton brushed aside Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem 3-0 thanks to goals from Italian Graziano Pelle, Serbian Dusan Tadic, from the penalty spot, and a late third from Shane Long.

Astra struck twice in the final 20 minutes to secure a draw ahead of next week’s second leg in Giurgiu, leaving West Ham with an empty feeling, according to Zarate.