Good evening and welcome to Eurosport’s LIVE text coverage of the Europa League play-off between West Ham and Astra Giurgiu. The Hammers hold a slight advantage from the first-leg having scored an away goal in a 1-1 draw but Slaven Bilic’s side have still a job to do at the London Stadium to secure a place in this season’s group stages. Team news to follow.

Europa League / Play-off round

London Stadium / 25.08.2016

West Ham United

Completed

Aggregate score 1-2

FC Astra

F. Teixeira(45')

Live

Live Updates

ByThe Editorial Team

Updated 25/08/2016 at 21:41 GMT+1

Mark Noble looks on from the stands. As mentioned earlier, the captain isn't involved tonight, though it isn't clear why. Presumably Bilic has opted to rest his midfielder.

Randolph makes a comfortable save from the free-kick but the visitors don't seem too intimidated by the lively atmosphere in the opening minutes.

The visitors have a free-kick and an opportunity to swing a cross into the penalty area after Tore commits a senseless foul.

1st Half

KICK-OFF! A tremendous atmosphere at the London Stadium tonight. 'Forever Blowing Bubbles' is echoing around this terrific arena.

19.40

Right then, to matters on the field and West Ham are bidding to end their 10-year wait to play European football. They last competed in the 2006/07 UEFA Cup when they were eliminated in the first round by Palermo.

19.35

Some breaking news just in: West Ham have landed attacking midfielder Edimilson Fernandes from FC Sion. The 20-year-old came through the youth system at FC Sion and has since made 48 first-team appearances for the Swiss club, scoring two goals.

19.30

It's quite a record for the right-back...

19.25

A 0-0 or 1-1 score-line or obviously a victory would be enough to send the Hammers through to the group stages of this season's Europa League but Slaven Bilic's side aren't prepared to play for a draw."We are not going to protect the away goal," the manager said. "It gives you an advantage but you cannot hang on for 90 minutes. We will play a normal game."

19.20

PRE-MATCH STAT! Although Astra Giurgiu have lost five of their last seven away European games (W1 D1), their two unbeaten games were on British soil, winning 1-0 at Inverness and drawing 2-2 with West Ham in 2015.

19.15

The Hammers would love nothing more than to play European football at their new stadium. Times-are-a-changing at West Ham.

19.10

West Ham skipper Mark Noble has been left out of the squad altogether for this evening’s contest. He’s replaced by new signing Havard Nordtve. Winston Reid takes the captain’s armband, replacing Reece Oxford in defence.

19.05

West Ham: Randolph; Byram, Reid, Ogbonna, Burke; Nordtveit; Tore, Obiang, Kouyate, Antonio; Calleri. Subs: Adrian, Collins, Oxford, Brown, Diangana, Valencia, Fletcher. /// Astra Giurgiu: Lung, Alves, Fabricio, Seto, Alibec, Morais, Lovin, Niculae, Sapunaru, Ionita, Teixeira. Subs: Gavrilas, Raileanu, Florea, Moise, Oros, Stan, Balaure.

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