Bournemouth, Crystal Palace take different paths to enjoy winning starts in Europa League | OneFootball

AFC Bournemouth and Crystal Palace won their opening Europa League games on Thursday night, with one victory easier than the other.

After Sunderland beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in their Europa League opener on Wednesday night, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace joined them in making a winning start to the group phase on Thursday evening.

In their European bow, Bournemouth had a much tougher night than Crystal Palace, but their victory will be equally as sweet.

The Cherries were given a tough opening group game with a trip to La Liga side Real Sociedad, but they made the perfect start by scoring twice in the opening 20 minutes.

Justin Kluivert beat the offside trap to break the deadlock before Rayan doubled their lead with a header from close range, but Sergio Gomez pulled a goal back for the hosts with around half an hour remaining.

Bournemouth were under pressure for most of the second half and goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic starred by making some stunning saves to keep Real Sociedad at bay as Marco Rose’s side hung on in a night that will be fondly remembered by supporters for many years to come.

Unsurprisingly, Rose was delighted with aspects of his side’s performance, but he revealed why he thinks they “needed to suffer” in the second half.

“It was very intense and tough,” Rose said on TNT Sports.

“Brilliant first half in everything. The way we won balls and the possession high up. In the second half, we needed to suffer because we were not so sharp. We need to talk about the second half.”

On the intensity: “That’s Bournemouth football. We want to be active and defend forward. We want to create chances. We had a header to be 3-0 up. The game is 90 minutes and the first half was really brilliant.”

On losing intensity: “It’s not about the games because we didn’t play so much so far, we just started. It’s about the mindset. We lack a bit of intensity and if you lose this kind of thing in our style, then we know. If you get tired, then we need to change with substitutes.

“It’s a brilliant win in our first European game. It’s brilliant for the club and the 2000 fans from Bournemouth.”

Crystal Palace cruise past Lech Poznan

Crystal Palace, meanwhile, had a far more comfortable night in their Europa League debut, hammering 10-man Lech Poznan 4-0 at Selhurst Park.

The Seagulls had some great European nights at Selhurst Park last season and supporters were treated to another on Thursday, with the gulf in class between them and Lech Poznan quickly apparent.

First half goals by Yeremi Pino, Chris Richards and Jorgen Strand Larsen ended the game before the interval, and Eddie Nketiah added a fourth late on after Radoslaw Murawski was dismissed for two bookings.

Midfielder Adam Wharton said post-match that this result and performance was a “great step forward” for Crystal Palace.

“There’s still a lot to work on, still early days, lots of new signings. We are trying to gel as fast as we can. It has been a slow start but tonight was a great step forward,” Wharton told TNT Sports.

“There were still some moments we could be tighter at the back but definitely a step in the right direction.

“The manager is very attack minded, he wants us to get high up. In training we are working on those patterns and I think there were a few good moments where we played one-touch play and it is good to see that starting to gel.

“When you are on the front you get the crowd behind you as well and on nights like these getting the crowd behind you helps. It pushed us on.

“Last year was completely new for a lot of the players. It is a different game to the Premier League, a different intensity. In this it is sometimes a bit more tactical. Coming into this season with the experience from last season is only going to help us.”