With seconds remaining, Bournemouth looked set to be jumping up to sixth and to within four points of Liverpool in the final Champions League spot.
It was all set up for a thrilling end to Andoni Iraola’s time in charge and a parting gift – both to the fans and successor Marco Rose – of European football.
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Sean Longstaff’s late strike doesn’t end that dream but dropping two points so late on is undoubtedly a painful blow – even more so given Iraola was adamant that Leeds’ Joel Piroe was offside and disturbing the view of goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic.
It means a fifth straight home draw in the Premier League, 16 league draws in all and while a 14-game unbeaten run is to be commended, no doubt the thought of what turning a couple of those into wins would mean will have crossed the minds of Iraola and his players.
Rather than outsiders, they might have been right in the thick of the race to reach Europe’s premier club competition.
Qualifying for European competition of any kind next season would be a huge achievement for Bournemouth and that goal is still well within reach – especially with talents such as Eli Junior Kroupi and Rayan in their ranks.
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The two 19-year-olds showed their qualities, Kroupi bursting into life after a quiet night to score the opener and continue his impressive campaign while Rayan was lively off the bench, even before sweeping in the hosts’ second goal.
The Brazilian only arrived in January and Kroupi is in his first season with the club, but already there are murmurings of interest from elsewhere.
Bournemouth will argue that a guarantee of regular game time will be more beneficial to them at this stage of their career if it the need to persuade either of them to stay arises, but doing so would be that much easier if they can also offer European football.
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