Justin Kluivert and Marcus Tavernier converted first-half penalties to put Bournemouth firmly in control against AC Milan, one of Europe’s leading clubs. Milan goalkeeper and skipper Mike Maignan was red carded early on for a foul on Tyler Adams and his side never fully recovered. Bournemouth pulled off a sensational 3-0 home victory over 10-man AC Milan on Thursday to make it three wins from their opening three games in the Europa League. Amine Adli scored a sublime 84th free-kick to make it 3-0, the Premier League side having opened their inaugural Europa League campaign with victory at Real Sociedad followed by a 3-0 home win over Sturm Graz last week.
“It means a lot. We came off two victories, so that gave us a good feeling for this game,” Kluivert told TNT Sports. Bournemouth, who became the first English club since Sunderland in 1973/74 to win the first three European fixtures in their history, will now face Sparta Prague and Celta Vigo in November. Bournemouth’s Premier League rivals Crystal Palace rebounded from a 5-0 weekend thrashing by Brighton to claim a 2-2 draw with Beskitas in Istanbul, while Scottish giants Celtic suffered a third successive defeat, going down 2-1 to Celta Vigo. The once mighty Hungarian side Ferencvaros kept pace with Leverkusen on nine points thumping Portuguese outfit Torreense 4-1, while Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise won 4-0 against Israeli outfit Hapoel Be’er Sheva. In the Conference League, former Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah opened the scoring from the penalty spot in Trabzonspor’s 2-0 win over Scottish side Hearts. Brighton were held to a 0-0 draw at Czech side Jablonec, as Monaco thumped Freiburg 3-0 and Ajax snuck a 2-0 win over Atalanta.
