AFC Bournemouth 1 - 2 LiverpoolLiverpool’s Daniel Sturridge climbs high to secure win at Bournemouth
Home team scorersJoshua King 90 +2:57
Away team scorersRoberto Firmino 41
Daniel Sturridge 45 +1:55
If questions remain over Daniel Sturridge and his place in England’s squad for the European Championship finals in June, the striker is doing a good job of answering them. He scored one and played a key role in the other as Liverpool, showing 10 changes from the heroics against Borussia Dortmund on Thursday night, tempered Bournemouth’s hopes of ending their debut Premier League season in the top half.
Roberto Firmino, who struck the opener here four minutes before half-time, was the only starter from their stunning comeback against Jürgen Klopp’s former team in midweek. Instead the German put plenty of faith in his young players to earn a third win in eight days.
Sturridge, however, was undeniably the story. After another campaign troubled by muscle problems, he suddenly looks sharp. He gave Tommy Elphick and Steve Cook a torrid time here, scoring his sixth league goal in only his eighth start. This was his fourth consecutive league start – the first time that has happened in two years.
Klopp was not too interested in speaking about the game’s best player, though, reacting in an unusually prickly manner to questions about his performance. The manager did say Sturridge “was very good, he’s a brilliant player”, but was more interested in basking in the glory of giving three players winning league debuts.
“This is a game with 11 players,” he said when asked to assess the striker’s performance. “Each player had an influence. I understand this as a team game. I enjoyed the game of Daniel Sturridge today because he’s a great player.”
Danny Ward notably impressed in goal on his full debut only to lose his clean sheet in added time when Joshua King halved the deficit and ensured a frantic final minute, while Connor Randall and Brad Smith completed 90 minutes in the full back positions.
Higher up the pitch Kevin Stewart looked assured in a holding midfield role; Sheyi Ojo showed flashes of danger in the first half; and Jordon Ibe played a part in both goals.
“I said to the boys before the game that we would have absolutely no chance with the same team against Bournemouth,” Klopp said. “That’s why we changed a lot of times.” He is likely to rotate heavily again for Wednesday’s Merseyside derby.
The game took quite a while to get going, though. A couple of half-chances aside, the bulk of the opening 40 minutes of action took place in a congested midfield. Perhaps the much-changed visitors just needed time to gel. When they did, they required only five minutes to score the decisive goals, though Bournemouth might question their feeble defending for both.
Eddie Howe, the hosts’ manager, said a slow start proved costly despite a good second-half battle. “It was a difficult first half, we didn’t play well at all,” he said and did not think they deserved a point. “I wouldn’t say so. I thought the game got away from us in the first half. We didn’t do enough and we conceded two soft goals.”
Certainly the marking was off for the opener. Firmino had started the move on the right, working the ball left from where Ibe played a low cross to Sturridge. He drew four Bournemouth players but still managed to backheel goalwards. Artur Boruc, at full stretch, got a hand to it but Firmino, left completely untracked after feeding Ibe, instinctively darted towards the back post. He tapped in from close range.
Bournemouth may also be disappointed by their inability to get close on Sturridge for the second goal in added time. Ibe’s lofted free-kick, after he was fouled by Ritchie, was met by Sturridge, who climbed above Elphick too easily before planting a clinical header into the bottom-left corner.
In search of a third to kill off any chance of a fightback, Firmino zipped a left-footed half-volley wide two minutes after the break, while an audacious Sturridge lob, after a delightful through-ball from Joe Allen, beat an onrushing Boruc but bounced narrowly wide.
The Cherries were denied a route back into the game in the 61st minute when Mike Jones failed to penalise Kolo Touré for a blatant handball when under pressure from Lewis Grabban. Callum Wilson’s home return – having been introduced in the final moments at Aston Villa last week following seven months out with a knee injury – buoyed the hosts but a fine Ward save from a Grabban header kept the two-goal buffer entering the final 10 minutes.
Bournemouth did drag one back in added time when King pulled down a long ball from Andrew Surman before firing low past Ward. Immediately after the restart the hosts piled forward and Cook almost grabbed an unlikely equaliser when directing a Marc Pugh cross on to the roof of the net.
Man of the match Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool).
Guardian