Manchester United And Bournemouth Draw 4-4 In Premier League Thriller
Manchester: In one of the best matches of the Premier League, Manchester United drew 4-4 with Bournemouth.
United coach Ruben Amorim said before the game that “it’s never fun to play against Bournemouth”, words that were prophetic on a night when his side had most of the opportunities but still came away with just a point.
Cherry had beaten United 3-0 on their last two visits to Old Trafford but there appeared little chance of that happening again as the home side took control and took a one-goal lead in the 13th minute.
Diogo Dalot’s cross fell to Amad Diallo who nodded almost towards the goal line.
United dominated a thrilling first half but Antoine Semenyo brought Bournemouth level after 40 minutes. Poor defending saw United lose the ball down the left wing and Semenyo advanced forward to send an angled shot under Senne Lammens.
Casemiro restored United’s lead in the first half when he headed home from Bruno Fernandes’ corner. Bournemouth goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic applauded the Brazilian player’s effort.
“It was a fun game for everyone in the house,” Amorim said. “When you look at the game, you may think that we lost two points in the second half. I think we lost two points in the first half. I think we should have conceded more goals and got a different result at halftime.
“It was a similar situation to Nottingham at the time (Forest, 2-2 in November), where we conceded two goals very quickly but managed to come back to take advantage and then we had to close the game out.”
During the halftime, the guest team took the lead for the first time by scoring 2 goals in 6 minutes.
Evanilson finished superbly after just 37 seconds thanks to a wonderful through ball from Marcus Tavernier, and six minutes later Tavernier curled a left-footed shot around the United wall to put Bournemouth 3-2 ahead and silence the home crowd.
United recovered and Fernandes’ excellent free-kick, often the savior, headed into the top corner with 13 minutes remaining and two minutes later Matheus Cunha released the ball in the box and clinically put the score to give the home side a 4-3 lead.
But Bournemouth still had enough stamina to get back into the match for a third time.
With six minutes left, Eli Junior Kroupi completed the race perfectly with one-touch control and a superb side-foot shot past Lammens.
“It’s a game that the fans will definitely enjoy,” said Tavernier, “but it was a bit frustrating on the pitch for us. We started the first half very slowly but we stayed in the game and in the second half we came out and did what we had to do.”
“The start of the second half was great for us on the field. We put ourselves in a great position in the game. Unfortunately, we conceded such half-baked goals.”
The result lifted Manchester United to sixth place. Bournemouth, without a win in seven league matches, ranked 13th.
