BOURNEMOUTH (England), April 3 ― Bournemouth gave themselves an outside chance of qualifying for Europe with a 1-0 home victory over Crystal Palace that left the visitors still looking over their shoulders today.
A scrappy Premier League game not helped by heavy rain was decided in the 80th minute by Justin Kluivert who finished well after good work by fellow substitute Antoine Semenyo.
Victory lifted Bournemouth above Chelsea into 11th place, just four points behind seventh-placed West Ham United.
After a fourth league game without a win, Palace are in 14th place with 30 points, eight ahead of 18th-placed Luton Town.
They could have few complaints as they managed only two efforts on target — one of which was netted by Eberechi Eze just before halftime but the goal was disallowed by VAR after Jean-Philippe Mateta was adjudged offside.
While Palace should stay out of trouble, Bournemouth can already start planning for another top-flight campaign after moving to 41 points and it could get even better.
Andoni Iraola’s side have picked up 13 points from their last five league games and are on course to surpass their best-ever top-flight finish of ninth in 2016-17.
Asked whether snatching one of the European places was a realistic aim for his in-form team, Iraola said: “The only thing with 41 points is that you know you are safe and are going to be in the Premier League next season.
“We have smaller goals. It’s good to be not so far from teams in the top 10. We want to have more points than Bournemouth have ever had in the Premier League. I think the current record is 46. There are more goals we have to go for.”
Only three teams in the Premier League have scored less than Palace’s 34 goals and manager Oliver Glasner said that is the problem he has to solve in the run-in to the season.
“If you don’t score a goal you can’t win. We had many good situations. You need to shoot. Maybe we have to improve, be more decisive in offensive positions,” he said.
“We played really well in the second half but we have to be more direct and not passing and passing. Take the shots.” ― Reuters
