Sparta Prague 1-3 Bournemouth: Europa League report by Layth Yousif
In the shadows of Prague Castle it was appropriate that Bournemouth’s European fairytale continued with a superb comeback victory on a bitterly cold evening in the Czech capital on Thursday evening.
In front of 17,377 second half goals from Tyler Adams, Evanilson and Rayan sealed an outstanding result after Ebrima Singhateh’s splendid individual effort on 35 minutes.
Having won their opening three European games the Cherries were in a comfortable position to rotate with Sunday’s clash against Ipswich Town on the horizon, which led to Bournemouth boss Marco Rose making eight changes from their weekend win over Leeds for the clash in the Czech capital, including Juventus loanee keeper Michele Di Gregorio.
In total prior to kick-off in the Czech capital, Rose’s side had won six games on the bounce, with the Cherries having never triumphed in seven games in a row in their 127-year history.
Brian Priske’s side nearly opened the scoring moments after kick-off when the lively Josimar Alcocer unleashed his blistering pace, bursting down the left flank past James Hill prior to squaring the ball into the box – only for Jonatan Brunes to side-foot wide from close range when it looked easier to score.
On 21 minutes former Hearts and West Ham midfielder Andrew Irving tested Di Gregorio with a free-kick on the edge of the area, after Ryan Christie blocked Ebrima Singhateh’s driving run, leaving referee Erik Lambrechts no option to but book the Cherries No10.
The official was soon to award a penalty to Bournemouth, following a handball by Sparta Prague’s Ki-Jana Hoever from David Brooks’ touch in the box. There was more drama to come when Lewis Cook saw his penalty hit the inside right hand post of keeper Jakub Surovcik before rolling away to safety without having crossed the line.
Shortly afterwards Sparta went 1-0 ahead when Ebrima Singhateh powered into the box prior to showing quick feet to slot home past Di Gregorio ten minutes before the interval, sending the home support into raptures at the superb individual effort they had just witnessed.
However, two minutes after the goal, Sparta No6 Tobias Guddal received his marching orders after picking up a second yellow card.
The expulsion was to prove problematic for the home side 12 minutes after the interval, when Tyler Adams, a half time substitute for Cherries captain Adam Smith, fired home to level the scores at 1-1, as the travelling fans celebrated wildly.
Worse was to come for the home side when Evanilson scored with nine minutes remaining to put the Cherries 2-1 ahead as Marco Rose’s team moved to the top of the Europa League table. To put a seal on a remarkable comeback triumph Rayan made it 3-1 on 90 minutes after Evanilson’s assist.
