AFC Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola felt his team’s 2-1 victory over the Blues wasn’t a match the Cherries would have deserved to lose, despite having been 1-0 behind as late as the 87th minute.

Subs Enes Unal and Dango Ouattara grabbed the late goals which saw the visitors, who are up to eighth in the Premier League, to their third win on the bounce and the Blues to a third successive defeat.

“I think it was a game that definitely we didn't deserve to lose,” the Spaniard said. “I think we missed, especially first half, clear chances to score and we had at the beginning of the second half also some moments where we were pushing.

“You don't score the goal and probably you start thinking it's not going to be our day today, maybe.

“But I think the subs especially the finishing product of them has been the decisive thing.”

Reflecting on the Blues going ahead through Conor Chaplin in the 21st minute, he added: “I didn't like the minutes before they scored. They were having a lot of throw-ins, corners, free-kicks where they are going to push you.

“We didn't want to play in our half against Ipswich because in these kinds of situations, they are dangerous and we conceded like this.

“Another throw-in, a second ball and it becomes much more difficult because obviously they defend compact, they don't give you the space and it was a different game.

“When you start losing it's always more difficult. But even if we were not arriving so much I think the times we've arrived have been quite clear and we should have scored before.”

Regarding his match-winning substitutions made in the 63rd minute, he added: “When they become the protagonist, they finish what we were not finishing before.

“I think we were having the chances especially first half, the post, the very clear chance from Tav [Marcus Tavernier].

“We had, even before the goals, one situation, three against one where we don't decide well and we were kind of arriving quite easy to the last third, but I think Ipswich was defending very well. They were very compact. They were not giving us a lot of chances to cross properly.

“We were arriving but there was a moment in the second half where it was not so clear and I think we needed this fresh energy and fresh mind from the subs.”

Quizzed on the incident in the opening second when Justin Kluivert appeared to strike Town skipper Sam Morsy off the ball, he said: “I think it was Morsy tried to block him and Justin tries to avoid him. Nothing was happening any more [than that].”

TWTD

poet added 21:51 - Dec 8 In my opinion, it’s not worth taking the opposing managers assessment too seriously, after all, they are defending their job in a very turbulent world. His comments reflect that situation, but if he were being truly honest, he’d say that they were fortunate. Muric’s mistake changed the momentum of the game. Had he not made that blunder, I believe Bournemouth wouldn’t have scored. When it happened, you could see that it had a very adverse affect on the rest of the team. We had opportunities to score which we missed, but in actual fact did score a good goal. It was ruled out by VAR, but I’ve watched many PL games this season, and the jostling in the area, was nothing compared to what I’ve seen in other games where the resulting goal was given. No, he was fortunate, had that goal been allowed, it would have changed everything.

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Bert added 22:34 - Dec 8 ……. but they didn’t deserve to win.
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WeWereZombies added 20:11 - Dec 9 A fair summation, although I wouldn't ind watching the Kerkes / Morsy incident back to see what went on.
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