Wolves pounce on late error to beat 10-man Bournemouth

21 Oct 2023

Reuters

Soccer Football - Premier League - AFC Bournemouth v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Vitality Stadium, Bournemouth, Britain - October 21, 2023 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Sasa Kalajdzic celebrates scoring their second goal with teammate Rayan Ait-Nouri Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs Acquire Licensing Rights

BOURNEMOUTH, England, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Bournemouth remained winless in the Premier League after Gary O'Neil's Wolverhampton Wanderers beat his former club 2-1 with a late winner from Sasa Kalajdzic on the south coast on Saturday.

O'Neil, who helped Bournemouth secure their top-flight survival last season, was sacked in June and replaced by Andoni Iraola.

But he made a winning return to the Vitality Stadium to put more pressure on his Spanish counterpart after Wolves fought back from a goal down at halftime, taking advantage after Lewis Cook was sent off early in the second half.

Wolves moved up to 12th with their third win of the season while Bournemouth, who have dropped 11 points from winning positions in this campaign, remained in the relegation zone in 19th place with three points.

"My team gave an awful lot. I thought we were the better side for most of it and were hard done by going in 1-0 down at halftime," O'Neil said.

"We had big moments we didn't manage to capitalise on and they capitalised properly on their only real situation."

Wolves forward Pedro Neto rattled the bar early on but it was Bournemouth who took the lead through a fast-flowing move down the right, which finished with Philip Billing finding Dominic Solanke in the box for a calm flick into the net.

Wolves came out on the front foot in the second half, however, and needed only 71 seconds to equalise when Neto drove into the box and found Matheus Cunha who curled a first-time effort into the back of the net.

Things went from bad to worse for Bournemouth seven minutes later when Cook saw red after he hacked down Hwang Hee-chan and head-butted the South Korean striker when he squared up in anger.

With the sides seemingly set to share the spoils, Bournemouth keeper Neto took a quick but short goal kick in the 88th minute, only for Wolves to pounce and win the ball back from Billing.

Hwang set up substitute Kalajdzic for an easy late winner.

"It's my first time as a manager playing against 10 men. We moved a few things around, and I thought we got some joy," O'Neil said.

"It's difficult to score and Bournemouth will be disappointed with the second goal I'm sure, to turn the ball over with 10 men."