This Wednesday the friendly match between Arsenal and Bournemouth took place, in a commitment that represented the first test for those led by Mikel Arteta facing the Premier League 2024-25The match became difficult despite having important players on the pitch, but the Gunners ended up winning on penalties.
Although Arteta had some strong players, he decided to give starting minutes to young players, who were supported by experienced players such as Ben White, Thomas Partey, Fábio Vieira and Eddie Nketiah. As for those led by Andoni Iraola, they came out with more interesting players such as Neto, Marcos Senesi, Illya Zabarnyi, Milos Kerkez, Marcus Tavernier and Dominic Solanke.
The score was opened in the 18th minute thanks to a great cross from Reiss Nelson, who found Vieira to volley in at the far post. The 24-year-old Portuguese forward had been making waves for Arsenal and took on the leading role after having other more important players such as Ødegaard, Trossard and Gabriel Jesus on the bench.
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Despite Solanke’s insistent first half, with Karl Jakob Hein hitting the crossbar, the Cherries had to wait until the second half to equalise. After a few changes by both teams, Antoine Semenyo made it 1-1 in the 73rd minute after an innocent turnover by Omar Rekik as the Gunners came out.
Arsenal pressed, but won on penalties
With the changes came names like Ødegaard, Trossard, Gabriel Jesus, Jorginho and Oleksandr Zinchenko, meaning Arsenal took on a different face. Although they had a few chances to get close to Neto Murara’s goal, the scoreline persisted. At the end of the ninety minutes, everything had to be decided by penalties and that was where the North London team came out on top.
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Almost all of the Gunners’ players were on the scoresheet, with Trossard the only one to miss after hitting the right post. The final score was 5-4 and it was necessary to go to sudden death after errors from Philip Billing and Ryan Christie. Arsenal’s next match will be against Manchester United this Saturday, July 27th at the SoFi Stadium.
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