Andoni Iraola’s side made it eight games unbeaten as they fought back to a 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
A sunny day on the South coast meant Vitality Stadium was packed for the Saturday early kick off, including a sold out away end of Sunderland fans who made the 350 mile trip down.
Iraola made two changes to his Bournemouth side coming into the game, Marcus Tavernier and David Brooks both made their first start after injury in place of Evanilson and Amine Adli.
Sunderland made three changes themselves, namely captain Granit Xhaka coming back into the side after an injury absence.
A fast start from Sunderland put the visitors in the driving seat and it looked as though they might have a penalty in the third minute when Alex Jimenez sent Enzo Le Fee to the floor in the Bournemouth box, however VAR dismissed the claims.
The Cherries held off the Sunderland pressure and got themselves back into the game, Junior Kroupi finding a chance on the edge of the box however his strike was low and wide.
The fast-paced physical battle continued and the visitors struck first in the 18th minute, Diarra’s shot was saved by Petrovic but parried straight into the path of Mayenda who had the easiest of tap ins to give Sunderland the lead.
David Brooks was inches from levelling the game five minutes later as the ball came to him at the back post however Geertuida made a critical sliding challenge to poke the ball out for a corner.
The Cherries kept pushing and had another great chance soon after when Marcus Tavernier’s initial shot was saved and Alex Scott tried to poke the rebound past Roefs but the Dutch goalkeeper made another good save to keep the visitors in front.
Bournemouth controlled much of the first half but couldn’t capitalize on any of the chances they made, leaving Sunderland with the lead at half time.
Iraola clearly wasn’t pleased with the first half and made one change at half time, bringing striker Evanilson on for David Brooks.
The second half began in the same tempo with both teams finding chances. Around the hour mark VAR was put into use again as Tyler Adam’s challenge on Granit Xhaka earned him a yellow which VAR checked and agreed it should be no more than that.
Tyler Adam’s afternoon didn’t last much longer than that as Ryan Christie came on to replace him just a few minutes later.
Christie made an instant impact, taking a quick free kick out wide to Tavernier who found Evanilson at the back post. The Brazilian slotted his header past Roefs to draw the Cherries level with half an hour left to play.
The game’s tempo slowed down slightly after the goal until Geertruida thought he won it for the visitors with ten minutes left of the match. He poked home a cross but the assistant referee’s flag was up and the goal was chalked off.
It was all to play going into the final period of the match with both teams wanting to find a winner to give them the two extra points.
Evanilson had picked up a knock defending a corner earlier in the half and chose to play on but seemingly couldn’t finish the match and had to be replaced after just 40 minutes by Alex Toth.
The Cherries pushed to find a late winner deep into 100 minutes but Sunderland stood strong to earn themselves a point, with the game finishing 1-1.
It leaves Bournemouth in eighth place ahead of the rest of this weekend’s games. The Cherries play next on Tuesday where they host Brentford at Vitality Stadium.
Bournemouth XI: Petrovic (GK), Truffert, Senesi, Hill, Jimenez, Adams (Christie 62’), Scott, Brooks (Evanilson 45’ [Toth 84’]), Tavernier (Adli 81’), Rayan, Kroupi (Unal 81’)
Unused subs: Mandas, Smith, Diakite, Milosavljevic