The city of Ipswich saw a faltering Bournemouth with 2-1 to claim their first Premier League victory of 2025 and to offer itself a glimmer of hope in their attempt to stay up.
The first Premier League goal of Nathan Broadhead brought the visitors ahead in the 34th minute of Wednesday at the Vitality Stadium, only a few moments after Bournemouth had gone close on the other side, with Antoine Semenyo and Alex Palmer forced Alex Palmer to make two crucial rescues.
Liam Delap doubled the lead of Ipswich in the hour and played a two with Conor Townsend before he got a powerful first shot in the net.
Bournemouth thought they had a penalty when Semenyo was brought down by Axel Tuanzebe, but the decision on the field was destroyed after a VAR assessment, where the contact had been outside the area.
Evanilson started hope for a comeback when he bounced a rebound of the efforts of Lewis Cook in the 67th minute, but Ipswich held on to claim only their fourth competition wins of the season.
Bournemouth has now lost four of their last five league matches, in a further blow in their hope to qualify for Europe, while 18th place Ipswich is now nine points of safety prior to a crunch collision with wolves.
Three points on the road. #Bouips | @Nustone_uk pic.twitter.com/5FR31ULBTE
– Ipswich Town (@ipswichtown) 2 April 2025
Data Debrief: Delap leads from the front
Delap has now delivered 11 league goals this season. Only Marcus Stewart has scored more for the Tractor Boys in a single Premier League campaign (19 in 2000-01), and Delap could break that record, the end of the season.
Indeed, the young striker has been the most important attacking power of Ipswich, good for 36.7% of their league goals this season (11 of 30). Only Alexander Isak (41%), Mohamed Salah (39%) and Erling Haaland (36.8%) have contributed a higher share for their respective teams.
Ipswich was clinical instead of dominant and only registered two shots on goal from 10 attempts, but both went in and the team of Kieran McKenna ended with an expected goals value of 1.18. In comparison, Bournemouth created many opportunities – firing 24 shots, seven on goal, with an XG of 1.95 – but was missing the cutting edge needed to break their bad shape.
The victory marks the first victory of Ipswich over Bournemouth in each competition since a 3-0 EFL Cup triumph in September 1996, which ends a win without five games against the Cherries.
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