Bournemouth’s Justin Kluivert nets hat-trick in 4-1 thrashing of Newcastle
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Bournemouth striker Justin Kluivert celebrates after scoring his team's third goal in the 4-1 win over Newcastle United.
PHOTO: AFP
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LONDON – Bournemouth midfielder Justin Kluivert struck a superb hat-trick in a 4-1 away win over his father Patrick’s former club Newcastle United in the early English Premier League kick-off on Jan 18, ending the hosts’ six-match winning run in the league.
Ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures, the victory temporarily left the Cherries sixth in the league on 37 points, behind fifth-placed Chelsea on goal difference, while Newcastle stay fourth on 38 points.
Magpies defender Dan Burn admitted that his side were outplayed on the day.
He told TNT Sports: “We didn’t start very well. They set traps and we played into them quite a few times. It was hard to recover. Bournemouth were just the better team today, technically and physically, and deserved to win.
“They are very, very good on the counter. They’ve got some very good players and are very dangerous. They ask questions that a lot of other teams don’t ask. They go quite long and direct and you don’t come up against that as much in this league.
“We also lost the ball quite a lot in the middle of the pitch. It is disappointing. We’ve been on a great run so we just need to dust ourselves down and go again.”
Bournemouth sounded a warning as early as the fourth minute when Martin Dubravka was forced into a save by Dango Outtara, but there was little the goalkeeper could do to prevent Kluivert giving them the lead two minutes later.
The man-to-man press of the visitors caused Newcastle no end of problems and when Bournemouth won the ball high up the pitch, Antoine Semenyo was able to feed Kluivert, who swept the ball past Dubravka for the opener.
Roared on by the home crowd, Newcastle captain Bruno Guimares levelled in the 25th minute, cleverly creating space for himself around the penalty spot before heading home Lewis Hall’s corner.
Undeterred, Kluivert put his side back in front before the break and they continued to attack in the second half while keeping Newcastle striker Alexander Isak, who had scored in his last eight Premier League outings, quiet.
Outtara thought he had made it 3-1 for Bournemouth with a finish from close range in the 61st minute but the ball was ruled by the video assistant referee (VAR) to have gone out of play in the build-up and his side had to be content with a corner instead.
Newcastle threatened occasionally from distance but the visiting defence remained solid, and Kluivert, whose father managed one league goal at St. James’ Park in a season-long stay with the Magpies in 2004-05, curled in a superb third in second-half stoppage time to complete his hat-trick.
Defender Milos Kerkez then completed the rout with a late rocket as Andoni Iraola’s side cantered to victory to make it 10 league games unbeaten for the Cherries.
“I want to help my team out, and be important for the club,” Kluivert said, the match ball cradled under his arm and one eye on European football next season.
“Our run is also beautiful, you know? And that’s what we showed today, that we’re here to make an impression, Bournemouth. So yeah, a lovely, lovely win today.
“I’m an ambitious person, we’ve got a lot of ambitious players in the team... we want to play Europe, we want to be the best that we can. And I think we show that also, so why not? Why not dream big? (Qualifying for) the Champions League would be very tough but who knows? Let’s see where we can end up.” REUTERS
