Chaos in Bournemouth

‘Iraola’s heroes’, read an improvised spray painted on Wednesday night, very close to the Vitality Stadium exit in Bournemouth, on the English south coast. The Basque coach’s Cherries just pulled off one of the most impressive comebacks in Premier League history, winning 4-3 in a match they were 0-3 down at half-time. It was a very intense night of emotions, goals and feelings of unity, and also tears, because the captain of Town of Lutonthe Welsh Tom Lockyerreturned as a spectator in the same match the ‘hatters’ suspended, three months later, after suffering a cardiac arrest which could have cost him his life.

The magnitude of what the team accomplished Andoni Iraola (Usurbil, 1982) is parallel to the insolvency of the result for Town of Luton, with great humility and sacrifice fights to avoid attachment. The intensity of the match was evident at the end in the passionate reaction of the fans AFC Bournemouthin packed stands, for a club that, without forgetting its modest origins, is experiencing a period of important growth, taking advantage of the money momentum of the Premier League.

It has been 21 years since an English league team came back from 0-3 down to win, and this is the fifth time it has happened in the competition. A double of Antoine Semenyogoal number 17 of the season Dominic Solanke and the first for the Ukrainian international Illia Zabarnyi For the ‘cherries’ they served to climb the mountain previously drawn by goals, in the first half, from Chong, Ogbene and Ross Barkley for him Cooked. The brutality of the result left the ‘hatters’ desperate, going on, hand in hand with the Welshman Rob Edwards fighting to save themselves from attachment, thanks to their commendable fighting spirit.

The 59th minute

The night was marked by the return of Tom Lockyer at the Vitality Stadium, along with the memories of his image, collapsed and lay on the grass, during the match played by the two clubs on December 16, on the south coast, and which had to be suspended. The defender of the Welsh Cooked He was rushed to the hospital, where he could be resuscitated, after cardiac arrest for two minutes and 40 seconds. The presence of the captain of the ‘hatters’, applauded on the pitch, enveloped the confrontation with emotion. Some fans were seen crying and the player wanted to thank the doctors who saved him: “I remember thinking: ‘I could die here,'” he confessed, visibly moved, to the stadium stands. Bournemouthwhere the development of the game continued.

The match played in December was stopped in the 59th minute, with the score 1-1, but Premier rules forced it to be rescheduled from the start. In tribute and memory to Lockyer, there was a general ovation at the Vitality Stadium in the same minute, on Wednesday night. The Bournemouth Supporters Trust also made a special gesture, helping to raise more than 2,000 euros to subsidize the Bournemouth fans’ trip. Town of Lutonwhich also increased the special atmosphere surrounding the match in the city on the English south coast.

The final victory of Bournemouth in their stadium took place in the FA Cup against Swanseaon January 25. That was almost two months ago, and the subsequent elimination of the tournament against City of Leicester (0-1) defiled the good work of Iraola leading the ‘cherries’, with his high-pressing style making the game difficult for his rivals. The victory was therefore much celebrated, as it helped the club’s continuation in the Premier. He Bournemouth now 14 points above the Town of Luton, almost freed, for another year, from any worries, and thinking only about growing up. The club’s new training facilities, with an indoor pitch at Canford Magna, have given new impetus to attract players, following a model applied by other clubs such as Brentfordor its most direct rivals to Brighton & Hove Albion.

Another ‘timeshare’ structure

Distinguished by its tourist attractions, its renowned university, its Lower Gardens and its kilometers of pristine beaches, some of the best in the United Kingdom, the city lives, as Brighton, the effects of the growth of the football club, which has a lot of ambition and economic injection to look at the top. The American tycoon Bill Foleyowner of AFC Bournemouth from 2022, and from Vegas Golden Knights, of the NHL, intends to follow in the footsteps of other more powerful clubs by creating another powerful timeshare structure, Black Knight Football. In addition to ‘cherries’, from the French club Lorientfrom Ligue-1, and from hibernian of Edinburgh Scotland, has acquired another club in New Zealand, at Auckland, who will join the A-League next year. His intention now is to transfer talented players and take a step in quality to compete with Brighton and establish itself as a benchmark on the English south coast.

Despite the brutal defeat at the Vitality Stadium, the ‘hatters’ fans are not giving up either. They are now three points behind Nottingham Forestahead of Saturday’s exciting clash between the two clubs, at the tiny and dreaded Kenilworth Road in Cooked, where they hope to add another victory. His energetic followers traveled to Bournemouth They didn’t give up, and they left the stadium proudly singing ‘Town are staying up’.