Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe Howe laments Riyad Mahrez's 'moment of magic'
Saturday 3 March 2018 20:15, UK
Bournemouth boss Eddie Howe lamented Riyad Mahrez's "moment of magic" that denied his side all three points at Leicester City on Saturday.
The visitors had appeared on course for a vital win thanks to Josh King's 35th-minute penalty at the King Power.
However, with the match entering its seventh minute of stoppage time, Mahrez stepped up to curl a brilliant long-range free-kick past Asmir Begovic to earn the Foxes an unlikely point.
"It has been a tough afternoon for us as we did a lot of things right today," said Howe. "I thought we defended very well in the second half, it was always going to be difficult as it is fine margins when you are only 1-0 up away from home.
"You are always going to come under pressure, which we did, we defended set plays and everything so well. We put our bodies on the line and felt like we deserved to win, but it was not meant to be.
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"I have not seen the goal again, but it was a quality finish from their perspective. But there are things that we can look at, analyse and try and do better for next time.
"But at that stage of the game it is all about trying to see it out and get over the line. They were causing us a problem from set plays, we had dealt with them pretty well all afternoon, but that was a moment of magic from their perspective."
Bournemouth could have already been out of sight before Mahrez's late equaliser had referee Lee Probert awarded another penalty when Wilfred Ndidi appeared to push over Charlie Daniels in the box eight minutes after the break.
However, the official waved play on, much to Howe's disappointment.
"I thought it was a penalty, I thought he was fouled," he said. "Lee obviously did not feel the same way. It is difficult, you come here and you go to an away ground and to get two penalties is difficult.
"But I think they need to be judged individually and I thought there were two stonewallers there for us."
Overall, though, Howe was delighted with how his team performed at the King Power as 11th-placed Bournemouth extended their recent good run to just one defeat in 10 Premier League games.
"One defeat in 10 in this league is a good achievement, there have been a few too many draws in there from our perspective, games that we could have won," Howe said.
"But it is keeping the momentum and keeping building is really important and every point come the end of the season could be so valuable."