Captain’s Strike Sinks Bournemouth

West Ham United beat fellow Premier League outfit AFC Bournemouth 1-0 in Stratford on Wednesday night to book their place in the Carabao Cup third-round. Where they will now face a trip to Anfield and a reunion with Liverpool, who knocked them out of last season’s competition.

Vladimír Coufal, Tomáš Souček, Max Kilman and Jarrod Bowen retained their places from the weekend’s game at Crystal Palace, as Julen Lopetegui gave full debuts to Crysencio Summerville, Niclas Füllkrug, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Jean-Clair Todibo, while also handing starts to Łukasz Fabiański, who was making his 200th appearance for the club in goal James Ward-Prowse and Edson Álvarez.

Guido Rodríguez, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Lucas Paquetá, Luis Guilherme, Emerson Palmieri, Mohamed Kudus, Wes Foderingham, Andy Irving and Michail Antonio were all included on the substitutes bench.

Having Picked up their first win of the season at Selhurst Park just five days earlier, the Hammers were keen to build on that success and give Lopetegui the perfect birthday present. They started the match well but were unable to make their early pressure count.

From that point on, the visitors grew into the game and had the better chances but were wasteful with them. Defender Alex Scott had a great chance to beat Fabiański but instead, sent his effort wide of the post.

Later, the Cherries were awarded a corner. it was once again left to the former Bristol City man to take. His delivery was dangerous and found Marcos Senesi but thankfully, he failed to make the most of the opportunity and sent his unchallenged header straight into the grateful grasp of the Pole.

Andoni Iraola’s side kept up the pressure and earnt another corner. the home goalkeeper elected to punch the second set-piece away but unfortunately for him, it fell straight to Luis Sinisterra but fortunately for the majority inside the stadium though, the former Leeds United player failed to register an attempt on target, as he headed wide.

Lopetegui’s side then managed their first shot on target five minutes before the break. However, Füllkrug’s effort was easy for visiting goalkeeper Neto to gather after Ward-Prowse had done all the hard work to pick the German international striker out.

The Cherries definitely finished the opening half in the ascendancy, as Dango Ouattara went close to sending his team into the break in front but somehow, his clever effort was blocked by Fabiański.

Both Lopetegui and Iraola made substitutions during the interval, as Mavoropanos replaced Todibo for West Ham, while the visitors introduced Evanilson in place of Daniel Jebbison.

Just as he did in the early stages of the first-half, Summerville tried his luck and although it was a better attemptthis time around, it still ended up wide of Neto’s goal.

What was unfortunate for the Irons at the start of the second-half was that the visitors had not lost any of their momentum and began to dominate proceedings again. Ouattara brought a good save out of Fabiański, while Evanilson shot wide from close-range, before getting past Mavropanos to find himself in space but fortunately, he made a hash of the final effort.

Clearly, AFC Bournemouth still did not have their shooting boots on, as continued to waste chance after chance, the latest occurred when Marcus Tavernier ran into the area and tried a shot but it wasn’t any trouble for Fabiański.

The hosts made a double change on the hour with Álvarez and Ward-Prowse being replaced by Rodríguez and Paquetá.

Iraola can’t have been pleased with his side’s finishing, as another chance came and went with Ouattara sending freekick over the top, while the other end, Bowen tested Neto from long-range.

The Hammers Head-Coach made use of his final two changes, as Kudus and Palmieri entered the fray for both Summerville and Füllkrug.

The introduction of Kudus certainly paid dividends, as he combined to great effect with Bowen and his shot went into net with the help of a big deflection, nevertheless it bought loud cheers and relief to the home fans.

It’s back to Stratford on Saturday evening for a much tougher test as last season’s Champions are in town for the day’s late kick-off.