Bournemouth beat ten-man Sparta Praha 3-1 after Guddal red card
Sparta Praha led through Ebrima Singhateh but lost Tobias Guddal two minutes later, and Bournemouth scored three times in the second half to win in Prague.
By Harvey Watkins,
Bournemouth came from behind to beat Sparta Praha 3-1 at the epet ARENA on Matchday 4 of the Europa League. The result turned on a two-minute spell before half-time. Sparta took the lead, then lost a player.
Ebrima Singhateh put the home side ahead in the 35th minute. In the 37th, Tobias Guddal was shown a second yellow card and sent off. Sparta had to defend that lead with ten men for the rest of the first half and all of the second. Bournemouth used the extra man well enough to score three goals.
The goals
- 35' Ebrima Singhateh (Sparta Praha) 1-0
- 57' Tyler Adams (Bournemouth) 1-1
- 81' Evanilson (Bournemouth) 1-2
- 90' Rayan (Bournemouth) 1-3
A lead held for twenty minutes
It would be easy to read the scoreline as a comfortable away win. The timing of the goals suggests something more drawn out. After Guddal's dismissal, Sparta kept their lead for around twenty minutes of playing time, through the remainder of the first half and into the second. Bournemouth did not get level until Tyler Adams scored in the 57th minute.
Even then the game stayed in the balance. The score was 1-1 for nearly half an hour after the equaliser. Sparta were a man short throughout that period and still went into the last ten minutes with a draw in their hands. A side reduced to ten players for more than fifty minutes usually tires as the game goes on. That is the likeliest reading of what followed, though the timings alone cannot confirm it.
Late goals settle it
Evanilson gave Bournemouth the lead in the 81st minute. This was the goal that decided the match. Sparta had little time left to find a second equaliser, and with ten men they had little to spare in looking for one. Rayan added the third in the 90th minute. It made the margin look wider than the game had been for most of its length.
The sequence is the main story here. Bournemouth scored nothing while it was eleven against eleven. All three of their goals came after the sending-off, and two of them came in the final ten minutes. Without the red card this could have been a very different evening. But Bournemouth still had to break down a side defending a lead, and it took them until the hour mark to do it.
What it means
For Sparta Praha the evening will be remembered for the two minutes either side of the 36th. They went ahead, went down to ten, and could not hold on. For Bournemouth it was a patient win rather than a dominant one. They took the chance the dismissal gave them, but only in the final third of the match did the result become secure.
Singhateh's goal stood as the only one Sparta managed. Adams, Evanilson and Rayan all scored for Bournemouth, so the goals were spread across three different players rather than coming from one source.