Ouattara nets hat-trick as Bournemouth trounce high-flying Nottingham Forest
Ouattara nets hat-trick as Bournemouth trounce high-flying Nottingham Forest
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In the meeting of lower middle-class upstarts both challenging the elites, Bournemouth dished out a footballing lesson to Nottingham Forest. Just like Manchester City and Arsenal, just like Newcastle a week previously, Forest were picked apart, their previously imperious defence ripped apart by warp-speed attacking.
![[Justin Kluivert scores Bournemouth’s opening goal.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/031479e20412df0312bfcf95b0c79b133719f1c0/0_40_4303_2756/master/4303.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Bournemouth fans wanted six. Theirs is the team of the moment. If Andoni Iraola and Nuno Espirito Santo share an enigmatic quality, it was the Basque, the friendly ideologue with a sense of perspective, who prevailed over the Portuguese, whose Zen-like calm masks hard-bitten sensibilities.
Bournemouth fans sang of a European tour while Forest’s Champions League dream - let alone any distant reverie for a Leicester 2016-style title - took a heavy jolt. Both teams had negotiated the Christmas glut to be placed within reaching distance of successes beyond the wildest dreams of clubs that once languished in the Football League. How high can Bournemouth go? Their rise continues with just 12 fit senior players. After that demolition job on Newcastle, and a full week’s rest, they were unchanged, and just as devastating.
Justin Kluivert’s opener saw’s Nuno best-laid plans malfunctioning. Last week’s hat-trick hero sped onwards as Forest defenders ran back in numbers, Ola Aina rubbernecking as he did so, but as no challenge came in on the Dutchman, he chose to strike. Matz Sels found himself unsighted by retreating defenders.
Ryan Yates’ return for Forest as their midfield aggressor had appeared an attempt to throw Bournemouth’s high press back on themselves, and to defend in numbers so that the counter-presses and counterattacks of their opponents would run into traffic.
