Bournemouth continued their 100% winning start to the UEFA Europa League (UEL) campaign with a 3-1 victory over 10-man Sparta Prague, who fell to just a second defeat in their last 10 European home matches.
For a Bournemouth side which had kept six clean sheets in a row prior to tonight, their start was something of a surprise. Sparta created two gilt-edged chances inside the opening five minutes, and both fell the way of Jonatan Braut Brunes.
Josimar Alcocer created the first one, jinking his way to the byline before finding the unmarked Brunes six yards out, who turned wide, while the second opportunity saw a stunning last-ditch block inside the area deny Sparta’s big-money summer signing the opening goal.
Those misses appeared to be costly on the half-hour mark when Ki-Jana Hoever handled the ball inside the area and conceded a penalty.
Lewis Cook assumed responsibility from the spot, but he failed where Marcus Tavernier and Justin Kluivert succeeded against AC Milan on matchday three and rolled his penalty against the inside of the post.
The Cherries paid the ultimate price for that miss when they conceded their first goal in over 550 minutes of football as a stunning solo run from Ebrima Singhateh ended with him weaving between two defenders and slotting into the bottom corner.
However, Sparta shot themselves in the foot two minutes later when Tobias Guddal’s wrestling match with Alvaro Rodriguez earned him a second yellow card.
The Czech side were always likely to have their backs against the wall after the break, and their resistance was broken within 15 minutes of the restart.
Sparta lost the ball in their defensive third and were punished in brutal fashion as Bournemouth sprung a lightning-quick counter and levelled the scores through half-time substitute Tyler Adams, who stroked home a loose ball.
Pressure was relentless on the Sparta goal, but breaking through was proving to be problematic for Bournemouth, who came close 20 minutes from time when David Brooks’ curling effort was palmed away by Jakub Surovcik.
A huge chance came and went on 80 minutes when Rodriguez danced his way into the area and saw his left-footed toe poke turned around the post by Surovcik.
But that was little more than a temporary reprieve for Sparta, who found themselves behind moments later when the fleet-footed Evanilson worked himself a yard inside the area and squeezed an effort into the far post.
Rayan placed the game beyond doubt in the dying moments when he arrowed home from distance to complete the turnaround and stretch the Cherries’ winning run to an incredible seven matches, and their winning start to the UEL campaign to four games, to all but secure their spot in the knockout stages.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Tyler Adams (Bournemouth)
Catch up on all the match stats with Flashscore.