Bournemouth thrash ten man Milan 3-0 in the Europa League

Five minutes. That's how long it took Bournemouth to win a penalty, and seven to convert it. What followed was a display with a numerical edge thrown in: Marco Rose's side thrashed Milan 3-0 at the Vitality Stadium in a Europa League league-phase matchday, in a game that was decided before the half-hour mark.

The opening stretch was a carousel of home chances. Kluivert and Gannon-Doak had already given warning with early efforts when, in the 4th minute, Koni De Winter handled the ball inside the box. The referee reviewed the play with VAR and confirmed the penalty in the 5th minute. Two minutes later, Justin Kluivert made no mistake from the spot, slotting home to the goalkeeper's right to make it 1-0.

The match was turned on its head in the 26th minute, and not just by the scoreline. Mike Maignan committed a penalty foul inside the box on Tyler Adams and, in the same passage of play, was shown a red card for fighting. Milan were down to ten men and without their starting goalkeeper before the half-hour was up. Marcus Tavernier stepped up to take the penalty in the 31st minute, sending it in at mid-height beside the left post for 2-0, and that was the score at halftime.

The second half was, for the most part, a formality. Bournemouth kept creating chances (Rayan, Christie, Alex Toth and Adrien Truffert all tried their luck without success) until, in the 83rd minute, Amine Adli wrapped things up with a direct free kick that crept in low, hugging the left post. It was the final blow for a Milan side that, playing with ten men for more than an hour, could barely get near the opposing box.

The numbers behind the beating

The stats reflect the gulf between the two sides on the pitch. Bournemouth dominated possession and vastly outshot Milan, who could barely keep the ball or create danger while playing a man down.

The xG calculated after the fact from the match's shots confirms that superiority: 3.178 for Bournemouth against just 0.124 for Milan, an in-house estimate that captures how one-sided the game was better than any other figure.

The preview fell short

Before kickoff, our projection gave Bournemouth a 51% chance of winning, with a 27% chance of a draw and 22% for Milan, with expected goals of 1.72 for the home side and 1.09 for the visitors. The actual result turned out to be far more lopsided than that forecast: the early penalty, Maignan's red card and the second penalty converted before the half-hour mark shattered any sense of balance that might have been expected.

What the matchday leaves behind

In the standings, Bournemouth head into this result with three wins from three games played in the competition, while Milan have one win, no draws and two losses from the same three matches. The points gap between the two sides in the table stands at 6. For Milan, beyond the three points they failed to collect, there's also the question of how many games Maignan will have to sit out following his red card for fighting, in a match where Ruben Amorim's side never found a way to hurt a Bournemouth team that was superior from start to finish.