Crystal Palace visited Vitality Stadium for the Cherries’ penultimate home game of the season, as they continued their pursuit of European football.
Andoni Iraola made two changes coming into the game, Tyler Adams and Rayan in for Ryan Christie and David Brooks.
Oliver Glasner on the other hand made five changes from their European win on Thursday, meaning Mateta, Wharton, Richards, Mitchell and Sarr all started on the bench.
The Cherries took an early lead just ten minutes in as Alex Scott floated a corner in which Evanilson glanced towards goal. Jefferson Lerma tried to block it however skewed his header and Dean Henderson couldn’t claw it out with goal line technology awarding Bournemouth with the goal.
Bournemouth’s Brazilians had chances to double their lead over the next ten minutes however both Evanilson and Rayan couldn’t keep their efforts below the Crystal Palace crossbar.
The Cherries were gifted a penalty to double their lead half an hour into the game when Dean Henderson brought Marcos Senesi down in the box after spilling the ball from a corner. Junior Kroupi stepped up for his twelfth goal of the season and made no mistake as he calmly slotted it into the bottom left corner to double the Cherries’ advantage.
Kroupi’s goal equals the record of twelve goals by a teenager in their Premier League debut season, along with Robbie Fowler and Robbie Keane. With three games remaining, Kroupi has a good chance of making the record his own.
Iraola’s side stayed in complete control for the rest of the half, preventing Palace from having a single shot, and took their two-goal lead into the break.
Crystal Palace made three changes at half time as they looked to get a foot in the game, with Wharton, Sarr and Mitchell replacing Kamada, Munoz and Pino.
The changes allowed the Eagles to get a grip of the game and they fashioned several good chances but struggled to convert them, leading to Jean-Philippe Mateta replacing Jorgen Strand Larsen for the last 30 minutes.
Rayan made sure there was no chance of the Eagles clawing back into the game however in the 77th minute with a composed finish across goal, substitute David Brooks picked up the assist.
Although other teams are yet to play, the win moves the Cherries into sixth place, which would get them European football for next season.
Next up is a trip to Fulham on Saturday who are also in with a shot of Europe and will be looking to end the Cherries unbeaten run.