AFC Bournemouth enjoyed one of their most dominant 45-minute performances since their promotion to the Premier League against former Premier League champions Leicester City.
The Cherries came in at halftime 3-0 to the good, with two goals from Ryan Fraser, who has spent the last week with the Scotland squad and a penalty from Norwegian international Joshua King.
Arguably, AFC Bournemouth could have been even further ahead, as the game could have been very different if World Cup star Harry Maguire had been sent off for the visitors for multiple offences during the first half.
The second half was a quieter affair, with AFC Bournemouth seemingly happy to play within themselves. Leicester City would finally drop down to ten men, but it was Wes Morgan and not centre-half partner Maguire given his marching orders.
A fourth would eventually come for Adam Smith. But two mad minutes for AFC Bournemouth almost opened the door for Leicester City to kick down (yes that’s Kasper Schmeichel reference…)
Diego Rico conceded a penalty when he fouled Ricardo Pereira, James Maddison stepped up for what seemed like a mere consolation, but then Marc Albrighton scored Leicester City’s second to give the visitors a more flattering scoreline.
AFC Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe told afcb.co.uk…
“While we weren’t at our absolute best, we had to show spells of that and I thought we were disciplined and very ruthless in front of goal.”
“We’ve created lots of chances and haven’t been taking them so it’s good to see that change in our performance today.
“The majority of our defending throughout the game was good too, but we can learn a lot from the last period of play.
“When they scored their first, we needed a better reaction. The mindset should be to keep clean sheets and I don’t think we used the ball enough when we had the advantage in the final part of the game.”
Your say…
billythekid wrote…
Thought Josh King had lost control of the ball at first, but what a pass to Ryan Fraser who put the ball away well for our opening goal.
Good pass from Callum Wilson to Ryan and he again stuck it away, to make it 2-0.
Then Josh puts our penalty away, 3-0 before h-t.
The second half at times it seemed a bit flat, but we made it 4-0 with Adam Smith scoring after a pass from Ryan.
Ryan Fraser very unlucky not to go home with the match ball, he was positioned well on two occasions but didn’t receive the ball to add to his tally.
Not sure what Lys Mousset was trying to do when he lost the ball and it ended with them getting a penalty.
That was the start of a poor time by our side against 10 men who again scored a second and spoilt our GD and keeping a clean sheet.
Ryan Fraser really enjoys playing in front of his own fans and deserved MOM. Thought Begovic had a good game, made saves when needed and good handling all game. – Join the conversation, click here.
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