David Moyes believes there is a “gap in quality” between West Ham and Bayer Leverkusen and states his anger at the officiating.

Conceding a late goal is always heartbreaking, conceding two is devastating. In the space of ten minutes, West Ham went from getting an excellent draw against Bayer Leverkusen, to having a goal disadvantage, to having it all to do in the second leg.

Despite the loss, David Moyes was happy with how his players performed and felt West Ham were on the wrong end of some poor decisions. “The players did a brilliant job, I was really, really pleased with so much that they did. But we’re going to have to play better at home to give ourselves a chance,” Moyes stated.

“We recognise the quality we’re playing against, but we’re just disappointed with another night of decisions not going particularly for us again.”

“They got their wing-backs much higher up than we did, because of the amount of possession they had and we didn’t.”

“In the main, we did a pretty good job, but not quite enough – and [the result] is what you get when you get to this level. If it was only that one, it wouldn’t be so bad, it’s the second one I’m more disappointed with.”

“I thought the yellow cards for Lucas Paqueta and Emerson were harsh. I think if our bench all ran and surrounded [the officials] they way they did, the whole bench came off and you’re not allowed to do that… I thought it was a really poor action from their bench.”

Even though they managed to keep the game in the balance until the 83rd minute, Leverkusen were clearly on another level to anything else the Hammers have faced in Europe.

“We’re probably playing a Champions League team tonight. We qualified for the competition by winning the Conference League, so there’s probably a gap in the quality, which showed tonight. But we limited it for long periods, we did a good job of it, but we just need to find a way of getting back into the game.”

“We weren’t good enough on the ball trying to build, to get us into better positions than we were, but I have to say their press was incredibly intense, incredibly fast, and the way they get the ball so quickly through the ball boys was something to see. It was something for us to learn.”

Coming back from 2-0 down against a side as good as Leverkusen is going to be the biggest challenge Moyes has faced in his West Ham career. In a tie that can be summed up as a clash between new style vs old style football, Moyes is losing the battle. However, you simply can never count the Scotsman out. Could we be about to witness his best masterclass to date?