Aston Villa hosted Bournemouth in an exciting match in the 34th round of the English top flight. The match had ups and downs, and the Villa team played well in the second half after being behind in the first half, and finally came back to beat Bournemouth 3-1.
The first half saw a fierce confrontation between the two sides. In the 31st minute, Bournemouth's Colquzi was brought down by Cash in the penalty area and the referee awarded a penalty kick. Solanke calmly took the penalty and shot the ball into the top left corner of the goal, giving Bournemouth a 1-0 lead. Villa then launched a counter-attack. In the first half of stoppage time, Rodgers received a direct ball from Bailey, he broke into the penalty area along the left road, dribbled away from the defenders and scored from a small angle, equalizing the score for Villa, 1-1.
In the second half, the Villa continued to strengthen their offense. In the 51st minute, Watkins received a pass from a teammate outside the penalty area, then took the ball away from the defense and fired a right-footed shot, but goalkeeper Neto held the ball firmly. However, Watkins was not discouraged. In the 57th minute, he received a pass from a teammate on the left side of the field, got rid of the defense and slanted the ball into the penalty area, Diaby burst into the penalty area along the middle of the ball to meet the ball with his right foot and pushed the ball into the goal, Villa reversed the score, 2-1.
The match then entered a white-hot stage. In the 74th minute, Watkins again received a long pass from a teammate, and he dribbled down the left side of the field and fired a right-footed shot, but the ball went wide of the far post. However, in the 78th minute, Villa scored again. Watkins received a direct pass from a teammate and darted into the box along the left side of the field, dribbling past the keeper and crossing the ball in front of the goal, where Bailey stepped in to meet the ball and pushed the ball into the empty net, giving the Villa a 3-1 lead.
In the final stage of the match, both sides had some chances, but neither side was able to capitalize on them. In the 83rd minute, Semeno won the ball on the right side of the field and then cut left footed shot, Martinez pounced on the ball and missed, Yu Naar made up for it, but the referee raised his flag at the first time to indicate that Yu Naar was offside, and then the referee blew the penalty for nullifying the goal.
In the end, Aston Villa won 3-1 against Bournemouth. After this game, Aston Villa ranked 4th in the league with 66 points, 6 points more than Tottenham Hotspur who had played two fewer games, and kept their Champions League seat for the time being. In this game, Watkins' performance was particularly outstanding, he assisted Diaby and Bailey to break the goal and scored a goal, and was named the best player of the game.
