Bournemouth climbed out of the relegation zone as they produced one of the narrow football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. Andreas Pereira scored for Fulham in the 16th minute, capping off a well-worked move, but Bournemouth responded five minutes later with a spectacular strike into the top corner from replacement Marcus Tavernier. In an intriguing match with chances at both ends, Dominic Solanke bundled the ball across the line via an Antonee Robinson deflection 11 minutes before full-time. Bournemouth now sits 15th, two points above the bottom three, with 10 games remaining. Fulham currently sits in tenth place, four points behind seventh-placed Brentford and sixth-placed Brighton.
Fulham were missing suspended duo Willian and Aleksandar Mitrovic after their red cards in the tense FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Manchester United, but the visitors were clearly the stronger team in the first half, taking the lead after only 16 minutes. Manor Solomon, Willian’s replacement, went free down the left before cutting the ball back for Harrison Reed to set up Pereira, who scored his first Premier League goal since November. Seven minutes later, Antonee Robinson hit the crossbar from 22 yards out, and the lead could have been doubled. Bournemouth didn’t have a serious chance until the 31st minute when Dango Ouattarra steered a left-footed shot just wide after clever combination play from Solanke and Philip Billing.
Pereira’s spectacular overhead kick had Bournemouth goalkeeper Neto nervous for a time before the Argentinian’s opposite number equalized. Bernd Leno made a brilliant save with his legs to deny Solanke. Bournemouth manager Gary O’Neil brought back Tavernier and Ryan Christie off the bench at halftime, and his team fared considerably better in the second half. Tavernier, who had been out with an injury since February, scored a spectacular equalizer in just five minutes. Tavernier picked up the loose ball from Leno’s throw away from a corner before cutting in from the right and curling an unstoppable left-footed effort into the top corner from 20 yards out.
Tavenier was inches away from claiming his and the Cherries’ second when the suddenly exhausted Leno extended out to block the former Middlesbrough man’s near-post shot. When Fulham found themselves firmly under the cosh, Jefferson Lerma’s shot from midway inside the penalty area was redirected onto the roof of the goal, and Bournemouth took a merited lead 11 minutes from time courtesy of a sloppy strike from Solanke.
Leno parried Ryan Christie’s initial low drive, and Solanke was on hand to bundle the rebound over the line from point-blank range for his fourth goal in five games against Fulham. Fulham utilized all five of their available substitutes but never threatened to deny Bournemouth victory, and the defeat is a big setback to their chances of qualifying for Europe.
“Even if we fell down 1-0 today, there would be a refusal to lose that football match, I felt in the locker room. We’re so determined to get to our destination. My players performed admirably,” Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil said. “I don’t want to exaggerate his abilities because I don’t want someone to come in and take him, but he’s a terrific footballer. Top clubs have players who are gifted technically as well as those who are gifted physically. Marcus Tavernier possesses both. It was a fantastic goal. I can’t believe we needed such a good strike to score. It was a lofty objective.”
“That was fantastic how we started the game and how we dominated the first half. We had a clear plan, and the players followed it, but we simply lacked the killer instinct to score the second goal,” Fulham boss Marco Silva said. “The second half was entirely different and impossible to comprehend. We prepped the players for what was to come, and we knew we needed to start strong in the second half, which we did not do. We need to figure out why this is happening because we can’t exhibit two faces like we did today.”
For the first time since February 2020, Bournemouth has won successive Premier League home games. Bournemouth has won a Premier League game after trailing at halftime for the first time since October 2022 (2-1 vs Leicester), having previously lost eight such games.
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