Diego Poyet has admitted that West Ham United needed a slice of luck to beat Birkirkara on penalties in the second round of Europa League qualifying.

The 20-year-old scored the decisive spot kick in Malta last night as the Hammers edged their way into the next round of the competition following a 1-1 draw on aggregate.

"With penalties, you know what it's like, anyone can win," he told the club's official website. "It obviously helps to have the talent and the quality of players, but it can go either way. We were trying to win it extra time but we couldn't convert any of our chances, so we had to do it the hard way.

"The most important thing was to get through and we did it. It was obviously tough going a goal down and then going down to 10 men as well before half time.

"It was a strange game, especially with the crowd and some decisions that didn't go our way, but we're just happy to be through to the next round."

West Ham will face Romanian side Astra Giurgiu in the third round of qualifying.