Manchester, Dec 5 (IANS) Soungoutou Magassa’s first goal for West Ham United salvaged a point in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford.

United had chances throughout, with Joshua Zirkzee seeing an effort cleared off the line before Bruno Fernandes hit a post in the first half.

But West Ham profited from a set-piece late on, thanks to Magassa’s composed finish, to ensure they did not leave Manchester empty-handed, Premier League reports.

United missed the chance to move up to fifth, but they did leapfrog Liverpool to go eighth. West Ham, meanwhile, remain 18th, two points behind Leeds United above them.

West Ham started brightly but only had a sliced, off-target El Hadji Malick Diouf effort to show for their early pressure after he was left unmarked on a corner.

Bryan Mbeumo saw a dipping curler tipped over the crossbar by Alphonse Areola before Zirkzee’s instinctive finish was cleared off the line by Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Fernandes’ volley on the rebound then scraped the left post on its way wide.

At the other end, Jarrod Bowen provided a threat on the counter-attack. He skipped past several challenges down the right, only for his tame shot to deflect off Luke Shaw and into Senne Lammens’ gloves.

In the 58th minute, United found the breakthrough. Casemiro was rushed into a shot on the edge of the box, but it deflected to Dalot, who took a touch before poking his effort into the bottom-left corner.

But the hosts failed to add to their tally, and they were punished for it when an unmarked Magassa slotted in after Noussair Mazraoui had cleared Bowen’s flick-on off the line from a corner seven minutes from time.

United manager Ruben Amorim said after the draw, “We had good moments and we lost a little bit in the first half and a little bit in the second half, after the goal. We lost, a little bit, the control of the game. We should have closed the game when we scored the first one.”

–IANS

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