Bournemouth beats Fulham, moves out of relegation zone
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BOURNEMOUTH, England (AP) — Dominic Solanke scored the winner after teammate Marcus Tavernier’s superb equalizer as Bournemouth moved out of the relegation zone with a 2-1 win over Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday.
Bournemouth jumped four places to 15th, two points above 18th-place Leicester.
The Cherries looked to be heading for a third defeat in four games when Andreas Pereira gave Fulham a halftime lead. But Tavernier’s stunning solo effort and Solanke’s 79th-minute winner were enough to give the hosts all the points.
Fulham was without suspended duo Willian and Aleksandar Mitrovic following their red cards in the FA Cup quarterfinal defeat at Manchester United. But the visitors were comfortably the better team in the first half and took just 16 minutes to open the scoring.
Willian’s replacement Manor Solomon broke free down the left before cutting the ball back for Harrison Reed to tee up Pereira, who fired home his first league goal since November.
Bournemouth boss Gary O’Neil summoned the fit-again Tavernier and Ryan Christie off the bench at halftime and his team was much improved in the second half.
Tavernier, sidelined by injury since February, took just five minutes to make his mark with a brilliant equalizer.
Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno looked to have got enough distance on his punch away from a corner only for Tavernier to pick up the loose ball before cutting in from the right and curling an unstoppable left-footed shot into the top corner from 20 yards (meters) out.
Bournemouth took a deserved lead 11 minutes from time courtesy of a scruffy strike from Solanke, who has now scored four goals in five career appearances against Fulham.
Defeat leaves Fulham four points off the European places.
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