Stoke City vs Bournemouth. Premier League.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance27,815.
Sunday 20 November 2016 22:48, UK
Nathan Ake's header handed Bournemouth a fine 1-0 win at Stoke, who missed a second-half penalty through Bojan at the Bet365 Stadium.
Bournemouth took the lead on 26 minutes through Ake's close-range header, his first goal on his first start for the club.
Bojan missed a penalty for Stoke in the second half, hitting the bar from the spot after Simon Francis had stepped on the Spaniard's foot.
The result means Bournemouth go up to ninth, four points off the top six, while Stoke are in 13th, just three points off the drop zone.
Stoke welcomed back Xherdan Shaqiri and Marko Arnautovic to the starting XI, but Mark Hughes' side struggled to get out of the blocks in the first half.
Bournemouth should have had a penalty early on as Callum Wilson was cleaned out by last-man Ryan Shawcross, but Roger East waved play on, despite the defender getting nowhere near the ball with his tackle from behind.
Josh King then saw his low effort from the right side of the penalty area saved superbly by Lee Grant, but the visitors did eventually go ahead after some more slack Stoke defending.
Ghosting into the six-yard box unmarked from Junior Stanislas' free-kick on the right, defender Ake powered a header past Grant and into the centre of the net for 1-0, only his second senior goal.
Stoke came back into the game as the first half wore on, with Shawcross seeing his header from a Shaqiri corner cleared off the line by Steve Cook.
The hosts, who had scored their last 13 penalties, were handed a spot-kick three minutes into the second half as Francis unintentionally stepped on the foot of Bojan, but the Stoke man struck his effort against the crossbar.
East was at the centre of attention once again as Wilfried Bony's nasty challenge on Francis went unpunished, despite the striker already being on a yellow card.
Shaqiri then blazed the ball over the crossbar from inside the area after Arnautovic's cut-back found the Swiss midfielder unmarked, before substitute Jonathan Walters saw his unmarked header saved by Federici.
Jack Wilshere nearly wrapped it up for Bournemouth in the final minute, striking the outside of the post with a finely-struck effort from the edge of the box, but the visitors were holding on at the end as Arter cleared Bruno Martins Indi's effort off the line.
Player ratings
Stoke: Grant (6), Bardsley (5), Shawcross (5), M.Indi (5), Pieters (5); Allen (6), Adam (5); Shaqiri (5), Bojan (5), Arnautovic (5); Bony (4).
Subs: Johnson (5), Walters (5), Crouch (5)
Bournemouth: Federici (6), Francis (7), Cook (8), Ake (7), Daniels (7), Stanislas (7), Arter (7), Wilshere (7), Gosling (7), King (6), Wilson (7).
Subs: Pugh (6), Afobe (6)
Man of the match: Steve Cook
