A little before the halftime, Zouma flicked a head-goal from a close distance, however the Cherries were incensed because it looked that one of Hammers defenders – Kehrer’s hands had touched the football earlier in the action.
Zouma’s controversial goal replaced West Ham to the 7th place
Yet, following a review by the VAR, they determined that the hand-play was inadvertent and hadn’t directly contributed to the goal, thus they permitted it to remain.
Nevertheless, when the teams exited the game at halftime, Cherries interim manager Gary O’Neil expressed his displeasure with the choice and received a booking.
During the last minutes (91st), the host team was given a penalty when Zemura from Bournemouth was found to have touched the ball while sliding in to stop a cross. Said Benrahma converted the penalty to give the hosts the win.
After going three games without a victory, it was a trying night for Bournemouth as they missed forward Solanke and goalie Neto to injuries after the first half.
When the ball struck Johnson’s hand and the scoreboard was showing 1-0, the guests believed they should’ve received a penalty themselves, but their pleas were denied.
A handball or fair goal?
The first contentious incident of the game occurred in the end of the first half, when West Ham earned a corner-kick from the right part and Kehrer attempted to score with his head, but the ball struck his hands because he had his eyes shut and his arms crossed ahead of him.
Chris Mepham, Cherries’ defender Mepham, could not go very far on a covering header, and then, when Tomas Soucek from the Hammers headed it towards score, the ball firstly bounced off Downes and afterwards Zouma’s heads until getting into the target, with the goal being awarded following a VAR check.
O’Neil, an ex-midfielder of West Ham who has been in interim command of Cherries since the middle of Summer, argued with the referees during halftime, insisting, that factually, it was a handball!
