West Ham attacker Tomas Soucek urged fans to be positive after defeat at SC Freiburg.

The Hammers will host the second-leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie needing to overcome a 1-0 deficit.

“It's disappointing, because after every loss you have to be disappointed," Souček stated. “I'm happy that it's only half-time – we beat them twice in the group and we wanted to do the same today.

“Our performance wasn't enough, but still we had a couple of chances. At home, we need to do much better to go through to the next round.

“I remember that game [against Sevilla] and we were very good in the second leg. I just hope we can do the same now because we want to play more in this competition.

“At home it was a perfect performance and I hope with the fans and everybody it will be the same and will be all good [in the end]."

On being denied a penalty for a handball, Soucek also told whufc.com: "The referee told me the defender kicked the ball onto his hand on his own, but it was me who played the ball.

“I think it's the wrong decision, but I'm not on the pitch to make those decisions. It's unlucky for us, it could be 1-1 but it's not, so we have to deal with it.

“We were not as sharp [tonight as in the last two matches]. We have to see what we did wrong and get ready for the next week."