Bowen bursts Cherries' bubble in Carabao Cup
West Ham United progressed to the third round of the Carabao Cup after a contentious late goal from Jarrod Bowen helped it edge fellow Premier League side Bournemouth 1-0 at London Stadium.
As the game looked to be heading for a penalty shootout, Bowen emerged as West Ham's hero, deflecting in the winner with just two minutes left on the clock, but the ball appeared to strike his arm.
Julen Lopetegui's Hammers were on the backfoot for most of the first half, which ended with Bournemouth winger Dango Ouattara testing goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski with an acrobatic effort.
The visitors went close again as Marcus Tavernier brushed the woodwork with his free-kick eight minutes after the restart, but Bournemouth failed to find the back of the net despite creating plenty of chances and mustering an expected goals (xG) of 1.01 to West Ham's 0.8.
Ultimately, that profligacy was punished when Bowen turned in Mohamed Kudus's 88th-minute strike, and with no VAR, there was no reprieve for the Cherries.
West Ham will return to action when it hosts reigning champion Manchester City in the Premier League at the weekend while the Cherries will be at Goodison Park on the same day to face Everton.
Bowen has now scored in each of his past three games in the Carabao Cup, and even though he did not know much about this goal, he was West Ham's greatest attacking threat, having five attempts in total, and putting three of them on target.
The Hammers have now found the net in each of their past six Carabao Cup matches, which is the club's longest such run in the competition.
