West Ham United fell to a late defeat away against Freiburg but will rue the contentious VAR decision that has threatened their place in the Europa League.

Despite defeating the German Bundesliga side both home and away in this season's group stage, David Moyes' side failed to bypass Noah Atubolu's goal and will now need to win at the London Stadium in one week.

The referee faced vehement objections from the Premier League side before moving to the monitor and maintaining his original decision. While West Ham have the quality to turn the tie around, it could prove costly.

Why West Ham had a penalty turned down

Trailing in the late phase following substitute Michael Gregoritsch's 81st-minute strike, the Irons applied the pressure and will feel aggrieved as Tomas Soucek hooked the ball into the flailing arms of Noah Weisshaupt in injury time.

It's a questionable decision, and while West Ham were wasteful all evening, it's a bitter pill to swallow.

Quite simply, the visitors should have been presented with the opportunity to restore parity from the spot in the dying embers.

However, the blame cannot fall solely onto the laps of the decision-makers, with Moyes' players on the pitch failing to find the back of the net and make their perceived superiority count, with Lucas Paqueta among those culpable.

Lucas Paqueta's performance vs Freiburg

Paqueta returned from injury as West Ham beat Brentford and played again during last weekend's turnaround victory against Everton at Goodison Park, ending a winless run that dated back to the last days of December, when Arsenal were beaten at the Emirates.

For all his influence, the Brazilian came up short on Thursday evening, sloppy in possession and profligate in front of goal, missing the target after a delightful cross from the impressive Mohammed Kudus.

Minutes played

89'

Touches

66

Accurate passes

34/49 (69%)

Big chances missed

1

Key passes

1

Dribble attempts

0/3

Possession lost

23x

Duels won

4/14

Tackles

2

As the table portrays, Paqueta proved painfully ineffectual at the Europa-Park Stadion, completing just 69% of his passes and losing possession 23 times – this could be forgiven if his attempts at creativity flowered promise, but he made just one key pass and failed with all of his dribble attempts.

Moreover, he won just 28.5% of his contested duels, hardly producing the kind of defensive performance that was needed, West Ham aware pre-match that a draw would not have been the worst result in the world.

The Evening Standard's Malik Ouzia echoes this sentiment, handing Paqueta a meek 5/10 match rating and writing in his post-match comments: 'Was lining up the opener when denied by Doan’s superb intervention, then headed over when he should have done better from Kudus's cross. Sloppy. Booked.'

West Ham can – rightly – bemoan the contentious officiating call all they want, but the plain fact is that the east Londoners should have been ahead far before and Paqueta must answer for his poor performance.

Still, London awaits next week and the Hammers will be confident that they can send their support into rapture. For Paqueta, he'll be eager to atone for his uncharacteristic showing, and given his first-class quality, he might just make amends and propel his side into the next round.