Bournemouth's Champions League dream ends, Europa League secured

There was an inflatable miniature plane bobbing around the Bournemouth away end and, for long periods, their unlikely Champions League dream was on. The Europa League will have to suffice. Andoni Iraola, whose name was serenaded on loop approaching the final whistle, will exit the stage having led Bournemouth to sixth, their best finish, a record points tally of 57 and having secured European football for the first time in their history. It doesn’t sound too bad.

Bournemouth’s result at Nottingham Forest was quickly rendered redundant by Brighton imploding at home to Manchester United but Aston Villa’s shock win at Manchester City and Liverpool’s failure to beat Brentford denied Iraola the perfect ending. This draw at Forest, who led through a Morgan Gibbs-White free-kick, does mean Bournemouth completed the second round of fixtures unbeaten, a run that goes back to the tail of last year.

For Gibbs-White, it was a decent response to being left out of the England squad despite registering 19 goal contributions in the Premier League season, including 15 goals. Only Erling Haaland, Igor Thiago and Antoine Semenyo finished the season with a better top-flight goal return. One of those included in Thomas Tuchel’s 26-man squad, Elliot Anderson, departed the pitch midway through the second half to a standing ovation, this probably his final Forest game; City, despite Pep Guardiola’s exit, are thought to be at the front of the queue for the midfielder.

At half-time it appeared all the dominoes were falling into place and approaching the hour the Bournemouth supporters sang of Bayern Munich and Barcelona but ultimately they will have to lower their sights to the likes of Bayer Leverkusen and Besiktas. That should not prove too painful given their incredible journey to this point but that there was a tinge of disappointment at not qualifying for the Champions League says everything about their rise under Iraola. Four years ago they were in the Championship and 17 years ago on the verge of going bust.

No defender in the Premier League covered more ground than Adrien Truffert this campaign and the Frenchman – surely one of the signings of the season since his £11m move from Rennes last summer – was the catalyst for Bournemouth’s leveller. Rather than admire his pass to Marcus Tavernier, Truffert burst forward on the overlap, outmuscusing Jair Cunha on the byline, from where the left-back pulled the ball back for an unmarked Tavernier to rifle in a first-time strike past Matz Sels nine minutes into the second half. Cue Tavernier’s baseball swing celebration.

Now Bournemouth just needed results elsewhere to go in their favour to bag a spot in Europe’s premier club competition. At first, things seemed to be going to plan, Curtis Jones opening the scoring for Liverpool in the second half, a goal soon relayed to the sun-drenched away end here. Manchester United were 3-0 up at Brighton. Ollie Watkins had levelled for Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium but, with an hour gone, all Bournemouth required was a winner for Manchester City. Earlier in the day the visiting fans had cheered Semenyo’s first-half opener against Villa.

Watkins’ second goal at City, for a team who spent the early hours of Thursday morning partying with Prince William in Istanbul, was not part of the script. Bournemouth had chances to seize the lead, the substitute Ben Gannon-Doak fluffing his lines and earlier carving Rayan a shooting opportunity from the edge of the box. Sels saved smartly from Eli Junior Kroupi, arguably the jewels in this dynamic Bournemouth side, and Gibbs-White went close at the other end.