“Really bad” Bournemouth knocked out of FA Cup – Highlights & Reaction

AFC Bournemouth hosted Leicester City at Dean Court on Tuesday night with a place in the Quarter-Finals of the FA Cup at stake.

Since AFC Bournemouth’s emergence as a regular top-flight club during the 2015/16 season. Leicester City have become one of the country’s winners. They have lifted the Premier League trophy, the FA Cup and the Community Shield.

They have enjoyed four separate European campaigns, reaching the Quarter-Finals of the UEFA Champions League, the semi-finals of the UEFA Conference League and two seasons in the UEFA Europa League.

However, they currently find themselves in the second tier of English football following relegation from the Premier League in 2023. Their absence looks likely to be shortlived as they currently sit top of the Championship ahead of Leeds United and Southampton.

Promotion is clearly their priority and that was evident with wholesale changes to their side for this encounter.

For AFC Bournemouth, protecting their Premier League stars for a crucial run of fixtures in March was also their priority, in a bid to solidify their place in the top flight for next season, although the carrot of a Wembley appearance being just two victories away, was tempting enough for AFC Bournemouth to name an unchanged back four in a bid for some level of continuity.

It didn’t work.

After the match, AFC Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports…

“It’s a bad day because we had hopes in this competition, but it’s true that if you play 120 minutes at home and you have the chances to attack we had today and you don’t score a goal, at the end, you deserve to get out of the competition.

“We were really bad in the last third, really bad. We recovered the ball very high a lot of times and even in the last passes, we didn’t decide well. They scored from a really difficult position – a top goal – and that’s the main reason they won.

“It’s something that is happening to us, especially over the last month, I would say. Even in the games we played really well in – Newcastle, Man City, Fulham – we are not scoring enough. That’s what makes the difference.”

Man of the match against Leicester Billing Vote Cook Vote Kerkez Vote Scott Vote Senesi Vote Semenyo Vote Someone else Vote Pfft Vote

AFCB_Liam

Desperately poor. Deserved to lose. Worst of both worlds as now Zab, Smith, Cook, Kerkez and Semenyo will be knackered anyway and we lost. Those who came in didn’t do themselves any favours – Billing was awful, Scott was poor, zero impact from Tav.

Had a golden chance to progress and blew it so we can concentrate on a mid table finish.

A frustrated Andoni Iraola provides his reaction 👇 pic.twitter.com/TSmWiCA92B

— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) February 27, 2024

Leeds Cherry

Did anyone else think that once Senesi was subbed we looked totally less organised and effective?

Each substitution seemed to make us worse.

Worrying was the lack of anyone in midfield to win the ball. We couldn’t even muster enough possession to make any late revival.

Doofus

Would keeping Udal on have been worth the risk? Really poor poor finishing from others.
Lame performances from Scott, Billing, Tav, Semenyo, Dango in particular. All looked leggy and couldn’t hit a barn door with shots blazed everywhere but where they should be. A very disappointing evening.

🍒 AI confirms Dom Solanke missed this evening’s game with a knee problem, and Enes Ünal has gone to hospital to have his shoulder injury checked. Was the reason he came off. #afcb

— Kris Temple (@kristemple) February 27, 2024

Green_Cherry

Very embarrassing performance. Andoni got it very wrong today, not having Dom in the team at all was a mistake especially after taking Unal off at HT and leaving us without a striker for the rest of the match. Billing and Tavenier look shadows of themselves last season. How Billing wasn’t taken off I’ll never know. Kluivert should have come on way earlier in the second half, he’s was the only player running most of the time.

The last few games have been appalling compared to pre-Christmas. I think we have to recall Rothwell and Brooks from loan. Our midfield has zero depth now with Rothwell gone. We saw today that Scott cannot play a deeper role and Billing clearly has lost interest. As much as I like Semenyo, Dango and Tav none of them are what you’d call goal scorers, whereas Brooks is, I understand his frustration in game time but letting him leave was criminal.

Have to win at Burnley on Sunday or else we might have to seriously consider being dragged into the relegation fight. Hopefully, the boys will learn from their mistakes today and we can put a strong performance in and get our season going again!

SteveJonesLegend

I’m not sure the back 5 did anything to be held to account for last night… the front 6, however, had a bad day at the office… While we all left thinking ‘that was sh*t’ (myself included), on reflection, it wasn’t sh*t, we just had a bad day… Largely due to personnel changes. The most worrying thing about it all is it shows how ineffective we can be as a unit without Dom leading the line… This is why he is so important to us…

The front 6 looked disjointed. for the whole game, with a few spells where we actually looked like we had played a game together…

For me, Alex Scott was the biggest disappointment, however, I do appreciate that he was in a team of players that again, were looking very disjointed. I did think he would control the middle better than he did though. Seemed rather anonymous at times, when he should be showing the manager that he has what it takes to dislodge Christie, or Cook… But then again, so should have the rest of the front 6…

There was a moment in the second half where Billing and Semenyo were arguing as to who was going to press the keeper… This is what happens when you play the majority of the game without a recognised forward, and perhaps highlights a weakness in Iraola, in that there is no other way of playing…

We’re the 5th lowest scorers in the PL and 10th in total shots… 33 goals from 334… For whatever reason we are struggling to put the ball in the net atm… But it will come. We’ve got a decent run of games now and I firmly believe we need just 6/7 points to see us practically safe…

Last night was disappointing, but as Billing said (rightly or wrongly) it’s not the end of the World… – To join the conversation, click here.