Dang Ouattara’s second-half hat-trick fired Bournemouth to an incredible 5-0 home win against high-flying Nottingham Forest and boosted hopes of a shock Champions League finish.
The Cherries followed up their impressive 4-1 victory at Newcastle last weekend with another sensational victory to hand the third-placed Premier League side their first defeat in all competitions since the start of December.
Unstoppable Bournemouth extended their club’s unbeaten run in the Premier League to 11 games and moved just a point off the top four, while Forest’s hopes of a surprise title challenge took a major hit as they fell nine points behind leaders Liverpool, who have a game in hand hand.
The sorry forest was shaken in the ninth minute when Bournemouth’s hat-trick hero against Newcastle, Justin Kluivert, struck again with a scorching long-range goal that slotted into the bottom corner.
Bournemouth then ran riot in the second half when Ouattara’s quickfire double put the home side in complete control as he headed home brilliantly in the 55th minute before firing low six minutes later.
Ouattara then completed his hat-trick in the 87th minute by diving in from close range before Antoine Semenyo added a fifth in stoppage time to cap off a fantastic performance from Andoni Iraola, who will be eyeing another big win next Saturday when they face with him. leading Liverpool at home.
The story of the match in statistics…
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