Bournemouth 3-2 Liverpool: Report, result and goals as Adli late winner stuns Reds

Liverpool saw their 13-game unbeaten run ended in dramatic fashion as Amine Adli’s 95th-minute winner gave Bournemouth a 3-2 victory at the Vitality Stadium.

Arne Slot’s responded to dropping points against Burnley last weekend by beating Marseille comprehensively 3-0 in the Champions League.

However, the struggles that have defined their failing title defence were quickly exposed as Bournemouth scored twice in the space of seven minutes to take command through Evanilson and Alex Jimenez.

Virgil van Dijk, at fault for both of those goals, pulled one back before half-time, and Liverpool would have been confident of turning the game on its head when the once again impressive Dominik Szoboszlai levelled with another fine free-kick 10 minutes from the end of normal time.

Yet Bournemouth did not sit back in an effort to settle for a share of the spoils and, after a James Hill long throw caused chaos in the Liverpool box, Adli stabbed home at the second attempt to condemn the champions to a damaging defeat in the race for a place in the Premier League top four.

Liverpool remain fourth, but could be leapfrogged by Manchester United, Chelsea and Newcastle United on Sunday. United face leaders Arsenal, Chelsea visit Crystal Palace and Newcastle host Aston Villa.

Bournemouth’s seven-minute blitz

Liverpool dictated the early going with fluent attacking play, but they were punished for a lack of cutting edge as Bournemouth twice made the most of the Reds’ defensive frailties.

Van Dijk’s inability to properly deal with a long ball forward from Marcos Senesi allowed Alex Scott to pull back for Evanilson to turn home a 26th-minute opener, with centre-back Joe Gomez injured as he collided with Allison amid his efforts to prevent the goal.

Liverpool were still waiting to replace Gomez when Bournemouth made it 2-0.

Jimenez was then played onside by Van Dijk as he latched onto James Hill’s excellent throughball, the Spaniard making no mistake with a fine finish.

Florian Wirtz drove narrowly wide as Liverpool sought to find a route back into the contest, and they were given one when Van Dijk flicked home Szoboszlai’s corner at the near post.

Late show stuns Liverpool

Despite dominating possession, Liverpool struggled to fashion clear-cut chances for an equaliser, but it arrived through more set-piece brilliance from Szoboszlai, who repeated the trick after scoring with a low free-kick against Marseille, this time going around the wall and finding the bottom-right corner after Mohamed Salah backheeled the ball into his path.

Bournemouth responded superbly, Ryan Christie seeing a curling effort tipped over by Alisson and Evanilson somehow firing narrowly wide of the near post after being played in by Christie.

Djordje Petrovic produced a fingertip save to turn a Wirtz effort around the post, but that was the last time the Bournemouth goal was truly threatened, as their attacking ambition was rewarded with a scrappy but decisive goal that sent them 10 points clear of the bottom three and will, in the coming days, increase the scrutiny on Liverpool boss Slot.