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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Liam Bryce

Moussa Dembele plays West Ham panto villain role with cheeky wink but David Moyes saves his fury for elsewhere

You could never accuse Moussa Dembele of lacking that touch of devilment.

The French striker loved a social media wind-up during his stint at Celtic and revelled in noising up Rangers fans, much to the delight of the Parkhead faithful.

Now at Lyon, it appears the forward hasn't lost that penchant for playing the panto villain on occasion.

He was the target of West Ham fans' fury on Thursday night during the two sides' Europa League quarter-final first leg draw in London.

Dembele was accused of going down easily as he raced towards goal and was met by defender Aaron Cresswell.

The Hammers star came charging round on the cover to prevent the strike going through one-on-one and placed an arm across his opponent.

Dembele went tumbling to the ground following the contact and Cresswell was shown a straight red card, having run a serious risk by putting his hands on the forward in the first place.

There was immediate fury around the London Stadium and, indeed, from some commentators who felt the 25-year-old had exaggerated the incident in order to have Cresswell dismissed.

And that perception wasn't helped by TV cameras capturing Dembele giving a cheeky wink after the decision had been made.

It was reminiscent of Cristiano Ronaldo's infamous wink at the 2006 World Cup during a classic clash between Portugal and England after he'd protested for Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney to be sent off.

The Cresswell decision was given a short shrift by West Ham boss David Moyes, who insisted he "wouldn't bother" discussing the referee.

He did, however, reserve a blast for a Hammers fan who ran onto the pitch and disrupted a promising attack for his own team during the 1-1 draw.

The 10-man Londoners had taken the lead via Jarrod Bowen before being pegged back by Tanguy Ndombele's equaliser.

So, when a rare attack from Moyes' side was thwarted by a pitch invader from the home end, the second of the evening, the manager couldn't believe it.

"I was baffled," he said. "This is a really good football club doing so many good things.

"But those things tonight didn't help, we were on a counter-attack with an opportunity to score."

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