Birkirkara 1-0 West Ham (3-5 on pens)

*.Manager Slaven Bilic's fourth game in charge
*.Birkirkara are Maltese Cup winners
*.Modibo Maiga has goal ruled out for offside
*.Hammers face Romanian side Astra next

West Ham scraped through to the Europa League third qualifying round after beating Malta's Birkirkara on penalties.

The Hammers led 1-0 after the first leg, but striker Fabrizio Miccoli slid in to restore parity on aggregate.

Both sides had a man sent off; James Tomkins was dismissed after 45 minutes for pushing Nikola Vukanac and Mauricio Mazzetti followed in extra time.

The Hammers scored all five penalties, with Diego Poyet scoring the winner.
West Ham will now face Romanian side Astra - who beat Scottish side Inverness- and still need to negotiate their way through that two-legged tie plus a play-off round to reach the group stages of the competition. On this showing, they will need a significant improvement.

None of the club's seven summer signings played, while Enner Valencia and Winston Reid both missed out at a hot Ta' Qali National Stadium.

Having replaced Sam Allardyce in the summer, manager Slaven Bilic's side were desperately disappointing and struggled against a side ranked 360th on the Uefa coefficients list.

Birkirkara - the Maltese Cup winners - were tenacious in the tackle and employed tactics that frustrated their opponents, with former Italy international Miccoli and midfielder Mark Noble both booked after a heated exchange.

Further controversy followed when centre-back Tomkins was sent off after grabbing Vukanac and throwing the defender to the ground as they jostled before a Hammers corner. The referee waited for the ensuing scuffle to clear before showing Vukanac a yellow card and Tomkins, who scored the only goal last week, red.

West ham created virtually nothing, although winger Matt Jarvis had a low drive smothered by goalkeeper Justin Haber - his team's only shot on target in the match.

At the other end, they were punished as Brazilian forward Liliu drilled in a low cross which Miccoli converted after beating Joey O'Brien to the ball.

The impressive defender Mazzetti was dismissed with 12 minutes of normal time remaining for a second booking and West Ham substitute Modibo Maiga had a late goal ruled out for offside.
But after struggling in the heat, the Londoners kept their cool during the penalty shootout

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