Sam Byram is confident West Ham United will overturn a first-leg deficit against NK Domzale in the Europa League third qualifying round and get off to a winning start at the Olympic Stadium.
West Ham made the trip to Slovenia last Thursday but despite being favourites to pick up a win in the clash, they suffered a disappointing 2-1 defeat.
Matic Crnic scored a brace for the hosts in what was arguably the biggest ever game in their history while Mark Noble converted a penalty in between those strikes for the visitors.
The result has left serious doubts over the Hammers’ chances of getting past this stage of the competition although home advantage could prove crucial in the return leg on August 4.
Slaven Bilic’s men were without a number of key players for the first match, with France international Dimitri Payet, full-back Aaron Cresswell and Argentine Manuel Lanzini all missing.
However, the likes of Andy Carroll, Sofiane Feghouli and Enner Valencia all started and it was disappointing the English outfit were unable to get the job done.
Byram is not feeling disheartened after the first leg though and insists extra work is going in for what will be the very first match West Ham play at the Olympic Stadium.
“Obviously we are disappointed to lose the first but we are going to be going into the new stadium,” he said.
“We will have another week’s training and a lot of things to work on but we will be going into the match full of energy and we are really looking forward to it.”
West Ham are also edging closer to their opening game of the new Premier League season, with an away trip to Chelsea awaiting on August 15.
The Blues are 1.62 favourites to win the clash, a draw is priced at 3.75 while the Hammers are 5.50 outsiders.
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