Bournemouth fight back to beat Fulham
Bournemouth gave their Premier League survival hopes a huge shot in the arm after coming from behind to beat Fulham at the Vitality Stadium.
In a game of two contrasting halves, goals from Marcus Tavernier and Dominic Solanke earned the home side three vital points after Andreas Pereira gave Fulham a deserved lead at the interval.
The Whites, who were without the suspended Aleksandar Mitrovic and Wilian, opened the scoring after 15 minutes when Pereira drilled home after Harrison Reed teed the Brazilian up inside the box from a Manor Solomon cross.
Antonee Robinson almost doubled Fulham’s lead when his first-time effort from distance crashed off the crossbar as Gary O’Neil’s hosts struggled to deal with the visitors on the counter-attack.
Bournemouth went close to an equaliser on the half-hour mark when Solanke outpaced Tim Ream and teed up Dango Outtara but his his shot rolled agonisingly wide of the post with Bernd Leno beaten.
O’Neil made two changes at halftime and it took one of them, Tavernier, just five minutes to make an impact with a stunning strike from the edge of the box after Leno punched clear a corner.
The goal was reward for a fast start from the hosts who saw a shot from Ryan Christie blocked on the line after Leno denied Philip Billing from close range.
But the home side grabbed the winner 11 minutes from time when Jefferson Lerma’s pass found Christie, who breezed past the struggling Ream to fire a shot that was parried by Leno into the path of Solanke with the former Chelsea man bundling the ball over the line.
Fulham: Leno, Tete (Soares 81), Ream, Diop, Robinson, Reed (Cairney 68), Palhinha, De Cordova-Reid (James 68), Solomon, Pereira (Wilson 87), (Lukic 81), Vinicius.
Subs not used: Rodak, Tosin, Duffy, Francois.
