Player Ratings: West Ham Overcome Europa League Scare with Comeback Win against TSC Backa Topola

West Ham United marked their return to the Europa League after last season's Europa Conference League triumph with a 3-1 win over TSC Backa Topola, but needed to come from behind to do it.

The population of TSC’s home town in northern Serbia could fit inside the London Stadium nearly twice, but they took a shock lead through Petar Stanic. The Hammers eventually prevailed thanks to an own goal, followed by headers from Mohammed Kudus – his first for the club – and Tomas Soucek.

Not exactly the glamour fixture of a group that also includes Olympiacos and Freiburg, there were visible patches of empty seats at the London Stadium that served to suppress the atmosphere. But the hosts were close to an early lead when a deflected James Ward-Prowse free-kick only narrowly missed the target after clipping the defensive wall.

In open play, Said Benrahma was the main source of creativity from the left, consistently linking up well with Danny Ings, who looked keen to prove a point on his first start of the season. The latter saw an effort beaten away by TSC goalkeeper Nikola Simic, while Thilo Kehrer was also denied by the stopper when his shot at the far post went through a forest of legs.

There were further chances when Kudus had a shot deflected that just dropped wide of the post, while Konstantinos Mavropanos glanced a header just wide from the resultant corner. But too many attempts were failing to further test Simic in the TSC goal. That Hammers profligacy could then have been punished when the visitors clipped the bar with header in first half stoppage time.

The warning wasn't heeded when the second half began and West Ham were caught cold by a TSC side with fresh vigour. It was a dreadful error from Angelo Ogbonna, who was guilty of thinking he more time than he did when his pocket was picked. Stanic raced away and coolly finished.

The reaction from the Hammers wasn't instant, lacking the quality they needed to get back on level terms for around 20 minutes or so. But when Benrahma stepped up with a moment of magic down the left, cutting back and floating a ball to the far post, TSC couldn't deal with it and Nemanja Petrovic unwittingly turned it into the net under pressure from Kudus.

The Ghanaian wheeled away in celebration somewhat optimistically, although it was only four minutes before he could do it for real. There was no doubt as he got on the end of a James Ward-Prowse corner, of which there had been many by that point, to head in from close-range.

Ward-Prowse's second assist of the night wrapped up the victory late on, whipping the ball towards the near post for Soucek to flick into the net. A top save from Simic denied Soucek a West Ham fourth, seconds before a goal-line clearance kept fellow sub Michail Antonio out.