Our opening game of our 2024 US Tour ended in a draw over 90 minutes followed by a shoot-out win against Bournemouth in Los Angeles.
Fabio Vieira drilled home a fine volley in the 17th minute to hand us a half-time advantage, but Antoine Semenyo’s deflected shot brought the Cherries level on 72 minutes.
However a good number of our travelling squad got some useful minutes under their belts, as they build up for our game against Manchester United in SoFi Stadium on Saturday. We then ran out 5-4 winners on penalties with Karl Hein the hero, denying the Cherries twice, before Jakub Kiwior stepped up to convert our sixth penalty.
FABULOUS FROM FABIO
Mikel Arteta opted to start with a mixture of youth and experience, with Ayden Heaven, Ethan Nwaneri, Salah-Eddine Oulad M’Hand and Myles Lewis-Skelly all given the nod to start, and all put in solid displays during a strong opening 45 for us.
Despite us enjoying the majority of possession in the early stages, the opening chance actually went to the Cherries but Dominic Solanke blasted over when well-placed, however in the 17th minute we made our early dominance pay.
Reiss Nelson was fed on the left flank by Nwaneri, and tricked his way past Max Aarons to get to the byline and clip a cross to the back post. That was where Vieira was lurking to expertly volley into the bottom corner and get our tour off to the perfect start.
Bournemouth had named a strong side packed with their Premier League starters, and with more minutes under their belts understandably began to grow into the game around the midway point of the first half and cause us more problems.
Romain Faivre went close when he fizzed a low shot across goal, and then on 35 minutes Solanke seemed destined to score when he slipped past Heaven and blasted goalwards, but Karl Hein showed excellent reactions to flick the ball onto his crossbar, and ensured we took our lead into the break.
BOURNEMOUTH BATTLE BACK
Mikel opted to make just one alteration to his line-up at the interval, with skipper Martin Odegaard being introduced and just after the hour mark, and after a quiet opening 15 minutes of the second half that only saw another Solanke shot fly into the crowd, seven more players were introduced by the boss, including our quartet of Euro 2024 stars.
The injection of fresh legs sparked the game back into life, and Hein had to be at his best when a neat flick from Daniel Jebbison sent Dango Ouattara through on goal but the Estonia stopper stayed big and made the block, before Odegaard whipped a free-kick goalwards that Neto pushed around his post.
But in 72 minutes the Cherries restored parity. Semenyo won possession off Omar Rekik and charged forwards, and saw a speculative attempt deflect off Ben White and loop towards the top corner, and this time there was nothing Hein could do to prevent it from finding the net.
With seven minutes remaining it looked as though we might edge back in from when a fine Odegaard pass slipped in Leandro Trossard who twisted and turned in the area to get a shot off, but Neto blocked with his feet to deny us a win.
HEROICS FROM HEIN
Although the game ended in a draw after 90 minutes, it was decided in advance that a penalty shoot-out would take place regardless of the scoreline.
Semenyo and Odegaard stepped up first and both found the bottom left corner, before Hein produced an outstanding save to deny Philip Billing at full stretch. Alex Zinchenko then fired into the bottom left corner to hand us the advantage.
Ouattara, Jorginho and Adam Smith scored the next three penalties, but Trossard’s driven effort bounced back off the post meaning we were level heading into the fifth round of penalties.
Jebbison scored with a powerful effort, before Gabriel Jesus emphatically took the shoot-out to sudden death.
Full of confidence from his impressive shot-stopping performance on the night, Hein produced another impressive save to deny Ryan Christie down low, before Jakub Kiwior stepped up to find the bottom left corner and send Neto the wrong way, winning the shoot-out. (Arsenal)