Bournemouth held on to claim a famous win at Real Sociedad in the first European match in the club’s history.<\/p>\n
Goals from Justin Kluivert and Rayan put the Cherries in control as their relentless pressing overwhelmed their Basque opponents in the first half.<\/p>\n
Sociedad were much improved after the break, got one back through Sergio Gomez and pushed hard for an equaliser late on but Marco Rose’s side held on for victory to begin their Europa League campaign.<\/p>\n
In a remarkably open start to the game, both sides got into dangerous positions but the first chance of note came in the 11th minute and was converted by Kluivert at the end of a lovely move.<\/p>\n
It was initially ruled out for offside but the video assistant referee stepped in and, after a two-minute delay, the Netherlands’ international was shown to be behind the ball as Adrien Truffert crossed from the corner of the box.<\/p>\n
The goal stood and Bournemouth soon had their second. Alex Scott spotted Rayan’s dart in behind and picked out him out with a superb pass that allowed the Brazil winger to head home at the far post.<\/p>\n
With their hosts stunned, the Cherries pushed on in search of a third and almost found it as Evanilson met Marcus Tavernier’s free-kick with an excellent header but saw the ball hit the inside of the far post and bounce out.<\/p>\n
As the La Liga side grew increasingly frustrated, the game became a little feisty late in the half and maintained an edge throughout.<\/p>\n
Sociedad came out with a point to prove after such a disappointing first half and, with Bournemouth showing signs of tiredness after their exertions of the opening 45 minutes, pressed forward in search of a way back into the match.<\/p>\n
They got it when Gomez’s inswinging cross from the right beat everyone and nestled in the far corner just before the hour mark.<\/p>\n
Bournemouth were pegged back and it took a string a fine saves from goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic to keep them in front, including a stunning reaction stop to deny striker Orri Oskarsson in stoppage time.<\/p>\n
But the Cherries clung on and to ensure their first foray in Europe was a memorable one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bournemouth held on to claim a famous win at Real Sociedad in the first European match in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-628006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}