Bournemouth Thrash Crystal Palace 3-0 To Boost Europe Qualification

Bournemouth boosted their hopes of qualifying for Europe for the first time with a 3-0 thrashing of poor Crystal Palace on Sunday.

The win, which extended a club record unbeaten run in the Premier League to 15 games, helped the Cherries climb to sixth in the table with 52 points – one clear of Brentford and two better than Brighton with three matches remaining.

Palace lacked any cohesion at Vitality Stadium, with a much-changed line-up from Thursday’s 3-1 win against Shakhtar Donetsk in the Conference League semi-final.

Finding themselves 15th in the league, they will turn their full attention to that competition.

Jefferson Lerma, who spent five seasons as a Bournemouth player before joining Palace, scored an early own goal.

Evanilson’s header from Alex Scott’s corner was going wide until midfielder Lerma diverted his clearance back towards goal, with goalkeeper Dean Henderson unable to claw the ball away.

Henderson was at fault for Bournemouth’s second as he failed to hold on to a long throw-in and then caught Marcos Senesi to give away a soft penalty.

Eli Junior Kroupi sent Henderson the wrong way from the spot for his 12th goal of the season.

Palace manager Oliver Glasner responded by bringing on Ismaila Sarr, Adam Wharton and Tyrick Mitchell at half-time, but Bournemouth continued to have the better opportunities.

Brazilian teenager Rayan, who spurned two chances early in the second half, sealed a comfortable victory by latching on to a throughball from David Brooks and firing across Henderson and into the bottom corner.