First-half goals from Andriy Yarmolenko and Mark Noble wrapped up top spot in Group H for David Moyes’ side.

It was an important victory for the Hammers as they are now straight through to the knockout stage having avoided a play-off in February against a team dropping down from the Champions League.

Moyes was even able to make eight changes to his side, resting the likes of Declan Rice and Michail Antonio, and still comfortably get the job done.

With Vienna in a new coronavirus lockdown the match was played in an empty stadium, with Rapid unable to call on their boisterous fans to lift them, and West Ham simply had too much class.

They almost got off to the perfect start when Arthur Masuaku drove a low cross into the box for the sliding Jarrod Bowen to poke just wide after five minutes.

Nikola Vlasic and Yarmolenko both fired narrowly over in a bright opening from the visitors.

The only moment of mild alarm came when Kelvin Arase weaved into a shooting position, and his effort was saved by back-up keeper Alphonse Areola on his way to a fifth clean sheet in six appearances for the Hammers.

Their dominance finally told six minutes before half-time when Vlasic crossed from the left and Yarmolenko was left with a simple header back across goal.

It was a first Hammers goal since January for the Ukraine international, who has played only 52 minutes in the Premier League this season.

Yarmolenko had a big hand in the second goal in first-half stoppage time after he turned Rapid skipper Maximilian Hofmann in the area and was brought down.

Captain Noble, a man clearly relishing this European adventure in his 18th and final season at the club, made no mistake from the spot.

After the break Bowen’s quick feet in the area accounted for three defenders, but his shot was straight at Rapid goalkeeper Paul Gartler.

Gartler also denied Tomas Soucek before Bowen’s follow-up was blocked on the line.

Teenage striker Sonny Perkins came on as a substitute for his Hammers debut and almost marked it with a goal when he met Vladimir Coufal’s cross with a fine header, but Gartler made a stunning reflex save and West Ham had to settle for two.

In other Europa League results:

Real Betis 2-0 Ferencvaros
SK Rapid Wien 0-2 West Ham United
Bayer Leverkusen 3-2 Celtic
Galatasaray AŞ 4-2 Marseille
Red Star Belgrade 1-0 Ludogorets
Lokomotiv 0-3 SS Lazio
Dinamo Zagreb 1-1 KRC Genk
Midtjylland 3-2 Sporting Braga
Rangers 2-0 Sparta Prague
Monaco 2-1 Real Sociedad
PSV Eindhoven 2-0 SK Sturm Graz
Brondby 1-3 Olympique Lyonnais
Olympiacos FC 1-0 Fenerbahçe
Leicester City 3-1 Legia Warsaw
Eintracht Frankfurt 2-2 Royal Antwerp

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Craig Dawson scored late in the first half before Issa Diop and Jarrod Bowen helped the Hammers to go six points clear.

Elsewhere in the group Rapid Vienna beat Dinamo Zagreb 2-1 to open their account in the competition.

Lyon have also made a perfect start to the European campaign and came from behind to edge Sparta Prague 4-2.

The French side, who finished the final quarter of an hour with 10 men after teenager Malo Gusto was sent off, trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes.

Cameroon’s Karl Toko Ekambi with a double, France’s Houssem Aouar and Brazilian Lucas Paqueta then responded to claim the victory.

Serie A leaders Napoli secured their first European win of the season overcoming the previously unbeaten Legia Warsaw 3-0.

Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen took his goal tally to nine for the campaign after Lorenzo Insigne had broken the deadlock for the Italians.

Italy midfielder Matteo Politano then rubbed salt into the Polish wounds with a third in added time.

Monaco remain top of Group B as 21-year-old midfielder Sofiane Diop claimed an 89th winner in the 2-1 success over PSV Eindhoven.

Austria’s Sturm Graz remain pointless after three rounds after Sweden’s Alexander Isak scored a second half winner in Real Sociedad’s 1-0 win.

Fenerbahce were denied a first win of the campaign as Pieter Gerkens scored with half an hour left to claim a 2-2 draw for Antwerp.

Marseille were held 0-0 at Lazio as Italy’s Ciro Immobile hit the woodwork for the hosts.

On Wednesday, Zambia striker Patson Daka scored four goals as Leicester revived their campaign by fighting back from two goals down to beat Spartak Moscow 4-3.

On Tuesday, Celtic beat Ferencvaros 2-0 in front of a crowd of more than 50,000 at Celtic Park despite a 1530 local time (1430GMT) kick-off.

The Hungarians were due to travel to Scotland in two weeks’ time, but policing requirements for the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow forced the fixture to be switched.

Europa League results:

Group A

Sparta Prague (CZE) 2 (Haraslin 4, 19) Lyon (FRA) 4 (Ekambi 42, 88, Aouar 53, Paqueta 67)

Rangers (SCO) 2 (Balogun 18, Roofe 30) Brondby (DEN) 0

Group B

PSV Eindhoven (NED) 1 (Gakpo 59) Monaco (FRA) 2 (Boadu 20, Diop 89)

Sturm Graz (AUT) 0 Real Sociedad (ESP) 1 (Isak 69)

Group C

Napoli (ITA) 3 (Insigne 76, Osimhen 80, Politano 90+5) Legia Warsaw (POL) 0

Spartak Moscow (RUS) 3 (Sobolev 11, 86, Larsson 44) Leicester (ENG) 4 (Daka 45, 48, 54, 79)

Group D

Fenerbahce (TUR) 2 (Valencia 21, 45-pen) Antwerp (BEL) 2 (Samatta 2, Gerkens 62)

Eintracht Frankfurt (GER) 3 (Borre 26, Toure 45+3, Kamada 59) Olympiakos (GRE) 1 (El Arabi 30)

Group E

Lazio (ITA) 0 Marseille (FRA) 0

Lokomotiv Moscow (RUS) 0 Galatasaray (TUR) 1 (Akturkoglu 82)

Group F

Midtjylland (DEN) 1 (Dyhr 78) Red Star Belgrade (SRB) 1 (Ivanic 58)

Ludogorets (BUL) 0 Braga (POR) 1 (Horta 7)

Group G

Real Betis (ESP) 1 (Iglesias 75-pen) Bayer Leverkusen (GER) 1 (Andrich 82)

Celtic (SCO) 2 (Furuhashi 57, Vecsei 81-og) Ferencvaros (HUN) 0

Group H

Rapid Vienna (AUT) 2 (Grull 9, Hofmann 34) Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 1 (Orsic 24)

West Ham (ENG) 3 (Dawson 45+1, Diop 57, Bowen 59) Genk (BEL) 0

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Mahir Emreli’s 10th goal of the season gave the Polish champions a 1-0 victory on Thursday.

Jannik Vestergaard missed the Foxes’ best chance and they are left facing an uphill battle in Group C.

Only the group winners go through automatically this season and the Foxes – who travel to Spartak Moscow in October – have one point from their opening two games, five points behind leaders Legia.

Despite boss Brendan Rodgers making six changes from Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Burnley Leicester were lethargic for long spells of the first half.

Legia made a fast start and Daniel Amartey was forced into a hurried early block on Mattias Johansson before the hosts escaped after 10 minutes.

Cezary Miszta missed Kieran Dewsbury-Hall’s corner but Ayoze Perez could only turn the ball back to the goalkeeper.

Patson Daka – starting after Kelechi Iheanacho was barred from entering Poland on Wednesday due to a problem with his travel documents – struggled to make an impact as the Foxes’ slow build-eup hampered their efforts.

But a cagey game burst to life when the hosts grabbed the winner after 31 minutes.

The Foxes continued to struggle without injured first-choice centre-backs Jonny Evans and Wesley Fofana and it was another poor defensive showing which allowed Legia to score.

Amartey was bullied off the ball too easily by Emreli and the striker drilled a low 16-yard effort through Vestergaard’s legs and in off the post.

Leicester, who lost a 2-0 lead against Napoli to draw their opener 2-2 earlier this month, needed to up their tempo and they should have levelled 10 minutes later.

Youri Tielemans seized on a loose ball to find Daka and the striker’s touch inadvertently teed up Perez but, with just the goalkeeper to beat, he dragged a poor shot wide.

Knowing they had struggled, the Foxes started the second half well and Perez had a goal disallowed after Amartey’s foul three minutes in.

Kasper Schmeichel claimed Emreli’s weak angled effort but the Foxes continued to ask questions and Vestergaard should have levelled with 24 minutes left.

The defender met Dewsbury-Hall’s corner and his miscued header bounced off his shoulder, although Miszta still needed to make a smart save.

Boss Rodgers was forced to call for reinforcements with Harvey Barnes and James Maddison replacing Dewsbury-Hall and Perez.

Maddison quickly picked out Daka but the striker failed to get a clean connection and his shot dribbled wide, although it hinted at a late Leicester fightback.

It never came though and, after Maddison saw a shot cleared, Schmeichel stopped Lirim Kastrati from striking late when the winger cut inside, only for the goalkeeper to turn his shot onto the post.

Tomas Pekhart also should have finished the Foxes off when he blazed over after being found by Kastrati on the break.

In other Europa League results:

KRC Genk 0-3 Dinamo Zagreb
Marseille 0-0 Galatasaray AŞ
Ludogorets 1-0 Red Star Belgrade
Celtic 0-4 Bayer Leverkusen
Sporting Braga 3-1 Midtjylland
SS Lazio 2-1 Lokomotiv
Ferencvaros 1-3 Real Betis
Real Sociedad 1-1 Monaco
SK Sturm Graz 1-4 PSV Eindhoven
Fenerbahçe 0-3 Olympiacos FC
Sparta Prague 1-0 Rangers
Legia Warsaw 1-0 Leicester City
Royal Antwerp 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt
Napoli 2-3 Spartak Moscow
Olympique Lyonnais 3-0 Brondby

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The Hammers’ very own Ant and Dec provided the tea-time entertainment in Croatia by finding the net on either side of half-time.

Antonio was probably only in the team due to the red card he picked up at Southampton, which has instead given him an enforced rest against Manchester United on Sunday.

But the striker brought his sizzling domestic form to the continent with his fifth goal of the season.

Rice, making his European club debut with 26 caps for England already to his name, added the second to give David Moyes’ side a comfortable win in their first-ever group stage match.

It is only the ninth time the Hammers have even been in Europe and the last time they won a match, not including qualifiers, was in 1999 against another Croatian side, Osijek.

Manager Moyes admitted beforehand that the trip to the Croatian league and cup winners might be their toughest assignment in Group H.

After all, Dinamo had reached the quarter-finals last season while accounting for Tottenham 3-0 along their way.

As such Moyes named a strong line-up despite making five changes from the weekend draw at Southampton, with Tomas Soucek and £30million new signing Kurt Zouma joining Rice and Antonio in the starting XI at the Maksimir Stadium.

His side opened the scoring in the 22nd minute thanks to a shocking backpass which will give Jesse Lingard flashbacks to his error earlier this week.

Kevin Theophile-Catherine was the guilty party with Antonio onto the loose ball like a flash.

He poked the ball past stranded keeper Dominik Livakovic and from a tight angle rolled it into an empty net.

Ryan Fredericks should have made it two moments later after he was sent through by Antonio’s clever flick, but Livakovic stood up well and saved with his feet.

Another summer signing, Nikola Vlasic, back in his home country, could have added a second before half-time but saw one shot blocked in a crowded penalty area and flashed another just wide.

Instead, Rice doubled the lead with a maiden European goal following a trademark surging run five minutes into the second half.

Rice burst through a challenge on the halfway line and charged forward before lashing a shot through Livakovic’s legs.

Pablo Fornals saw a late effort kept out by Livakovic, while Hammers keeper Lukasz Fabianski barely had a shot to save in an impressive opening to West Ham’s European campaign.

In other Europa League results:

Galatasaray 1-0 Lazio
Lokomotiv 1-1 Marseille
Real Betis 4-3 Celtic
Red Star Belgrade 2-1 Sporting Braga
SK Rapid Wien 0-1 KRC Genk
Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Ferencvaros
Midtjylland 1-1 Ludogorets
Monaco 1-0 SK Sturm Graz
Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Fenerbahçe
Leicester City 2-2 Napoli
Brondby 0-0 Sparta Prague
PSV Eindhoven 2-2 Real Sociedad
Rangers 0-2 Olympique Lyonnais
Olympiacos FC 2-1 Royal Antwerp

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Mamelodi Sundowns have shown interest in signing defender Anele Ngcongca from Belgium side Genk.

The Brazilians have already secured the biggest signings of the season when they signed Sibusiso Vilakazi from Bidvest Wits.

Sundowns have now made official contact to Ngcongca’s representatives with the view to bringing him back to South Africa, according to KickOff.com.

Pitso Mosimane says that he is an admirer of the 28-year-old Bafana Bafana stalwart and has not ruled out the possible of making a move for the Bafana Bafana defender.

‘We would like to have Ngcongca,’ Mosimane said.

‘But let’s wait and see.’

Sundowns have already lost former captain Ramahlwe Mphahlele, who signed for Kaizer Chiefs but have brought in Brazilian defender Ricardo Nascimento as his replacement.

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