{"id":935357,"date":"2026-05-03T16:55:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/935357\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T16:55:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T16:55:25","slug":"if-bournemouth-want-europe-we-need-to-do-something-special-andoni-iraola-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/935357\/","title":{"rendered":"If Bournemouth want Europe, we need to do something special \u2013 Andoni Iraola \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andoni Iraola insists in-form Bournemouth still \u201cneed to do something special\u201d to clinch European qualification after climbing to sixth in the Premier League with a comfortable 3-0 win over Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard is determined to lead the south-coast club into continental competition for the first time before leaving his role at the end of the season.<\/p>\n

Jefferson Lerma\u2019s own goal against his former team and a Junior Kroupi penalty set the hosts on course to stretch their unbeaten run to 15 top-flight games, prior to Rayan putting the result beyond doubt.<\/p>\n

Bournemouth host title-chasing Manchester City in Iraola\u2019s final home match as head coach, in between trips to Fulham and Nottingham Forest.<\/p>\n

\"North<\/a>\"Daniel<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a good place, physically and mentally,\u201d said Iraola. \u201cThe problem is we have three very difficult games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe definitely need more points. If we want to get Europe, we need to do something special: win away against a very good team or win at home against City.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith normal performances we are not getting Europe. We have to find something special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bournemouth fans sang of a potential European adventure under incoming head coach Marco Rose in the closing stages of a comprehensive victory over a poor Palace side.<\/p>\n

While the Europa League or the Conference League are more realistic targets, the Cherries retain an outside chance of scraping into the Champions League.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you give us the chance to play Conference League, we will sign it, 100 per cent,\u201d said Iraola.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther clubs probably have easier games than us. You never know in the Premier League, you can never take anything for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a massive opportunity. I will do everything to try to grab it. But knowing that it still is very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palace\u2019s visit to Dorset was sandwiched between their two-legged Conference League semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk, which they lead 3-1 on aggregate.<\/p>\n

Eagles boss Oliver Glasner admitted his below-par players were \u201cmentally fatigued\u201d due to the club\u2019s European commitments during a dismal display.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all disappointed with the performance but the tank was empty today,\u201d said the Austrian, whose side hit a post late on through substitute Ismaila Sarr.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what we have to accept. We know that we can play better. We normally play better, especially than we did in the first half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all could see that we just weren\u2019t fresh enough for a Premier League game against a very good Bournemouth team with high intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just made so many easy mistakes, so many wrong decisions and this just shows the players were mentally fatigued today and that\u2019s what we have to accept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lerma inexplicably nodded over his own goal-line in the 10th minute when a header from Cherries striker Evanilson appeared to be drifting wide.<\/p>\n

Eagles goalkeeper Dean Henderson then conceded a penalty for an adjudged foul on Marcos Senesi after dropping the ball following a long throw into the box.<\/p>\n

Both managers agreed the spot-kick, awarded by referee Robert Jones, was extremely harsh.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Glasner.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the softest contacts but it would be wrong to blame the referee for the defeat. It was our performance but I don\u2019t blame the players.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andoni Iraola insists in-form Bournemouth still \u201cneed to do something special\u201d to clinch European qualification after climbing to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1923,261502,14384,180,1925,2000,299,5187,27038,101,10031,16],"class_list":{"0":"post-935357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-afc-bournemouth","9":"tag-afc-bournemouth-vs-crystal-palace","10":"tag-andoni-iraola","11":"tag-bournemouth","12":"tag-crystal-palace","13":"tag-eu","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-oliver-glasner","17":"tag-premier-league","18":"tag-soccer","19":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116511698411691892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}