Solanke’s Bournemouth spoil Norwich City’s promotion party

Bournemouth did their English Premier League promotion aspiration a lot of good with a convincing 3-1 victory at Norwich City.

The Canaries had earlier on Saturday afternoon earned an English top-flight berth following the failure of Swansea City and Brentford to record wins in their respective games.

Even at that, manager Daniel Farke named a strong starting XI against the visiting Cherries at Carrow Road. However, they crumbled like a pack of cards to surrender their impressive 13-game run in the English second tier without losing.

Norwich City got off to a flying start but taking the lead through Emiliano Buendia in the fifth minute. After getting on the end of Kenny McLean’s through ball, Teemu Pukki slipped a pass through his markers before the Argentine forward lifted a shot over Asmir Begovic, which sailed into the net.

However, they suffered a massive blow in the 17th minute as Dimitrios Giannoulis was given his marching orders by referee Graham Scott. The Greek left-back was shown the way out following an awkward challenge on Ben Pearson.

Despite the numerical disadvantage, they went into the half-time break with a slim lead.

In the second half, Bournemouth came out stronger and subsequently exploited their hosts, who played with a man down.

Five minutes after the restart, they levelled matters through substitute Sam Surridge with his first-time shot, which goalkeeper Tim Krul could not keep out.

Seven minutes later, they doubled their advantage through man-of-the-match Arnaut Danjuma. The Netherlands’ midfielder of Nigerian descent cut in from the left touchline, beat some players before firing into the top corner from 25 yards out.

While Farke’s team were chasing the equaliser, Lloyd Kelly ended their ambition of a comeback by netting the third in the 76th minute with Danjuma providing the assist.

Nigeria prospect Dominic Solanke was on parade from start to finish, while Zimbabwe’s Jordan Zemura was not considered for selection.

Thanks to this result, Bournemouth climbed to fifth on the English second tier log after garnering 74 points from 42 outings.

With that, they have established a seven-point cushion in the race for play-off places ahead of their trip to Millwall on Wednesday.

Even with their defeat, Norwich City remain at the summit of the table with 90 points from the same number of matches.