Bournemouth comes back from 3-0 down to beat Luton 4-3 in the Premier League

BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) — Bournemouth completed a stunning comeback to beat Luton 4-3 in the Premier League on Wednesday after being 3-0 down at halftime.

Antoine Semenyo’s 83rd-minute strike at Vitality Stadium sealed the win for Bournemouth and prevented Luton from climbing out of the relegation zone.

Bournemouth is the third team in Premier League history to come back from 3-0 down at halftime and win. Manchester United and Wolverhampton were the other two teams to achieve that feat.

“I haven’t been involved in a game like that before,” Semenyo said. “Even when we are down at halftime we know that man to man our game is about bravery. So in the second half whether we are down or up we are going to be pressing the same way. We know that we are going to have chances and second half today was amazing.”

Luton had looked set to climb up to 17th in the standings and above Nottingham Forest on goal difference after strikes from Tahith Chong, Chiedozie Ogbene and Ross Barkley before halftime.

But Bournemouth powered back after the break through Dominic Solanke, Illia Zabarnyi and a double from Semenyo.

“It’s going to hurt but we have to pick ourselves up,” Luton manager Rob Edwards said. “We have another huge game (against Forest) in a few days time and we’ve got no other option but to pick ourselves up and go again.”

The game had been rescheduled after the original fixture was abandoned when Luton captain Tom Lockyer suffered a cardiac arrest on the field in December.

Lockyer was in attendance along with the medical staff who treated him on the field and received a standing ovation from fans.

He was soon celebrating with the rest of the visiting fans when Chong headed Luton in front in the ninth.

Ogbene doubled Luton’s lead in the 31st and Barkley made it 3-0 with a powerful effort in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.

Bournemouth had come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 with Sheffield United on Saturday and produced an even more impressive fightback on this occasion.

The home team scored three in 14 minutes after the break, with Solanke pulling one back in the 50th. Zabarnyi headed in a second in the 62nd and the scores were level two minutes later when Semenyo struck at the near post.

Semenyo hit the winner with an effort across Luton goalkeeper Thomas Kaminski to seal a spectacular win.

“We finished the game very happy obviously, but there were moments during the game where we were struggling and it was difficult to keep believing,” Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola said. “The players did it and we could finish the comeback in the end.”

Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams entered in the 71st minute for his first Premier League appearance for the southcoast club. The United States captain had hamstring surgery last October. He had appeared in just one game since March 11, 2023, playing 21 minutes against Stoke on Sept. 27 in the English League Cup.

___

AP soccer: https://ift.tt/Zj8kFMD

Adblock test (Why?)