Gianluca Scamacca's first goal for West Ham on Thursday helped the club defeat Viborg of Denmark 3-1 in the Europa Conference League play-offs.

West Ham entered the match following consecutive Premier League losses to Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. Last season, West Ham advanced to the semifinals of the Europa League.

However, Italian international Scamacca, who was acquired from Sassuolo for £30 million, calmed fears by scoring in the 23rd minute after being set up by another new acquisition, Maxwel Cornet.

Prior to Viborg's goal through Jakob Bonde five minutes later, Jarrod Bowen added a second in the 64th minute.

West Ham's third goal came from substitute Michail Antonio with twelve minutes remaining, putting the Londoners on track to advance to the group stage.

In spite of an early shock, Villarreal, the 2021 Europa League champions, defeated Hajduk Split 4-2.

Hajduk gave Hajduk the lead in the second minute, but the Spanish team quickly bounced back and led 4-1 at the half.

A brace by Jose Luis Morales, a Marko Livaja own goal and a Gerard Moreno strike in first-half stoppage time put Villarreal in charge.

A Marco Fossati penalty five minutes from time, however, gave Hajduk a glimmer of hope of overturning the deficit in next week’s second leg.

Anderlecht, 32-time Belgian champions, came away from Young Boys in Switzerland with a 1-0 win secured by a Hannes Delcroix goal just before the hour mark.