Rice scores winner as West Ham beat Rapid Vienna in UEL

A much-changed West Ham side made it two wins from two in Group H of the Europa League with a 2-0 win at home to Rapid Vienna on Thursday night.

David Moyes made seven changes to the XI who beat Leeds at the weekend as his West Ham squad continue to juggle the demands of European and domestic football.

However, Rapid Vienna manager, Dietmar Kuhbauer also rested a few players himself, including star man Marco Grull, with the team sitting second-bottom of the Austrian Bundesliga ahead of their must-win game against fellow strugglers WSG Tirol on Sunday.

The Hammers dominated the opening half in their first-ever home Europa League group-stage match and Declan Rice finally made the breakthrough just under half an hour into the game after both he and Craig Dawson had already hit the post twice.

Andriy Yarmolenko lofted a ball over the top of the Rapid defence, Michail Antonio chested it down and squared it to Rice, who tapped it in and celebrated emphatically in front of the riled up opposition fans.

The second half was a much more physical and cagey affair and it seemed that West Ham would rue not taking their chances when the visitors were awarded a penalty in the 70th minute.

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Much to the pleasure of the packed out London Stadium, the penalty was overturned once VAR clarified Marco Grull had in fact tripped himself up instead of being fouled by Ben Johnson.

Jarrod Bowen rounding the ‘keeper and blasting over ten minutes later wasted another opportunity to put the game beyond reach, but he made amends by assisting Said Benrahma for a last gasp goal in injury time.

Benrahma will be hoping for more of the same in West Ham’s next match – a return to his previous club Brentford on Sunday.