Julen Lopetegui was proud of his West Ham United team’s efforts in their 1-1 Premier League draw at AFC Bournemouth on Monday evening.
The Hammers gave their all at Vitality Stadium, creating numerous chances and going in front on 87 minutes when Lucas Paquetá sent Kepa Arrizabalaga the wrong way from the penalty spot. The Brazilian celebrated by kissing the West Ham crest on his shirt, before racing to the away dugout to embrace Head Coach Lopetegui in a clear show of support for the Spaniard.
However, that elation turned to frustration three minutes later when Bournemouth substitute Enes Ünal curled a dipping 25-yard free-kick past the hitherto unbeatable Łukasz Fabiański and denied the Irons their third away league win of the season.
While the final scoreline did not satisfy the Head Coach, the performance of his team did as they pushed a Bournemouth side who had already defeated Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur on home turf all the way.
West Ham not only played well against a difficult opponent at a difficult stadium, but they also did so with 19-year-old Ollie Scarles making his Premier League debut from the bench with 15 minutes to go, and fellow Academy of Football graduate and 2023 FA Youth Cup winner Kaelan Casey playing his part late on.
As such, Lopetegui pointed to the all-round attitude and performance shown by his team and also praised the travelling Claret and Blue Army, whose vociferous support drowned out the home crowd on the south coast…
I think we were very close to winning on a very difficult pitch against a very good team who have been very strong at home.
We were very close and we did a lot of good things. We had more expected goals than them and in the first half we had a lot of clear chances.
It is true that they were strong in the second half, but we came through our bad moment and were able to score our goal.
We had one very clear chance before the goal, too, and after it was a pity because they scored one fantastic goal.
After this there were eight minutes and it is true that they have changed the score of a lot of matches in the last minutes, but I think we managed these moments well with two young players coming to the pitch by being one team until the end.
We are happy but not happy because we want more, and it was a pity for the fans because we were very close to achieving three points for them. It was a point, but I think it is important the behaviour we showed as a team and we showed we are moving in a positive direction and it is important to look forward.
When we work as a team, we are much better, and this is what we have to think about.
