West Ham drew a blank in the Black Forest as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their Europa League last-16 meeting with Freiburg.

Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paqueta missed golden opportunities to give the Hammers a lead to take back to the London Stadium next week.

But instead they will have to come from behind after they were hit by a late sucker punch from Freiburg substitute Michael Gregoritsch.

They were also denied what looked a clear penalty for handball in stoppage time after the referee refused to change his decision despite checking the pitchside monitor.

Nine months to the day since they lifted the Europa Conference League trophy in Prague, West Ham were back on their continental travels, and against familiar opponents.

Freiburg were the visitors to east London for the final group game just 84 days ago when a 2-0 win secured top spot for the Hammers.

West Ham also won 2-1 on their previous visit to south-west Germany in October, and travelled buoyed by back-to-back Premier League wins following a below-par start to the year.

Boss David Moyes, keen on another strong run in Europe, named his strongest line-up with cup goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski replacing Alphonse Areola in the only change from Saturday’s victory at Everton.

West Ham were, as usual, happy to let their opponents have the ball but Freiburg gave them a scare when Roland Sallai’s through-ball split their defence.

Fortunately, Lucas Holer hit his shot into the ground and straight at Fabianski.

Moments later Bowen made a horrible mess of West Ham’s only chance of the first half.

The forward, who has not scored in Europe since his famous last-minute winner against Fiorentina in the Czech capital, peeled away at the far post to meet a Mohammed Kudus cross but badly fluffed his volley.

At the start of the second half Ghana winger Kudus cut inside Freiburg full-back only to curl his shot straight at keeper Noah Atubolu.

Bowen then scampered down the right wing and crossed for Paqueta, who also scuffed a volley wide.

A James Ward-Prowse corner should have been converted by Konstantinos Mavropanos but the centre-half’s header grazed the far post.

Paqueta then met another superb cross from Kudus but the finish, a simple header, again did not match the quality of the delivery, before Atubolu did well to tip Bowen’s curler wide.

Tomas Soucek also fired straight at Atubolu and Bowen just missed Aaron Cresswell’s cross before Freiburg struck.

A sloppy pass from Edson Alvarez gifted them possession and when Sallai took aim from the edge of the area, his wayward shot was tapped in by Gregoritsch.

Four minutes into stoppage time the ball struck the arm of Freiburg youngster Noah Weisshaupt in the area but after a long VAR check, referee Alejandro Hernandez checked the replay and stuck to his guns.

Bayern Munich boss Thomas Tuchel is expecting the unexpected when his side returns to Bundesliga action on Sunday against Freiburg.

Bayern sit third in the table, unbeaten in their opening six matches, but had to fight back from 2-0 down to salvage a point in last week’s 2-2 draw at Leipzig.

Tuchel’s side also came from behind in midweek to win 2-1 in Copenhagen and make it two wins from two Champions League group matches.

After quickly refocusing on this weekend’s domestic challenge, Tuchel told a press conference: “We really want to get all three points, but we know how difficult it will be, so we’ll have to show up on Sunday.

“Freiburg change their system a lot and I’m 100 per cent sure that they’ll do everything possible to make our lives difficult. We’ll have to be ready for that.”

Freiburg have not beaten Bayern in the Bundesliga in 14 attempts – their last win being in 2015 – but they knocked Tuchel’s side out of the DFB Cup last season.

Lucas Holer scored a 95th-minute penalty as Freiburg came from behind to win the quarter-final tie 2-1 in Tuchel’s second game in charge of Bayern.

The Bavarians’ last three matches have all been on the road and Tuchel admitted after Tuesday night’s win in Denmark that the travel had taken its toll.

“It was a long journey, which the boys are feeling the effects of,” he said. “We’ve played a lot of away games recently.”

Tuchel confirmed Matthijs de Ligt has still not recovered from the knee injury sustained in last month’s 7-0 home win against Bochum, but Raphael Guerreiro was back in training.

The Portugal midfielder has been sidelined since injuring his calf during pre-season.

“Unfortunately, Matthijs de Ligt has not made as quick a recovery as we had hoped for. Dayot Upamecano and Kim (Min-jae) are fit to play,” Tuchel added.

Freiburg, whose cup success at the Allianz Arena last season was their only win against Bayern in Munich, will be without suspended midfielder Nicolas Hofler.

Michael Gregoritsch and Yannik Keitel both missed Freiburg’s 2-1 home Europa League defeat to West Ham on Thursday and remain doubtful.