BOURNEMOUTH, England (Reuters) -Brentford captain Christian Norgaard scored a second-half winner to move his side closer to the top half of the Premier League table as they came from behind to win 2-1 at Bournemouth on Saturday.
Two set-pieces proved the undoing of Bournemouth, who had taken an 18th-minute lead from Vitaly Janelt’s own goal but saw the visitors fight back through Yoane Wissa and Norgaard to ensure a fifth successive away victory for Brentford.
Wissa headed home from a corner in the 30th minute to equalise before Norgaard snapped up a long throw-in in the 71st that was allowed to bounce invitingly in the home penalty box.
Brentford moved up one place to 11th in the 20-team table while the defeat was a blow to Bournemouth’s hopes of qualifying for European competition for the first time.
Bournemouth have now won only one of their last six Premier League fixtures and remain ninth after a third successive home league defeat.
"Results-wise, we are in the worst moment in the last four games and we are not being clinical enough inside the box," said Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola.
The opening goal came after a ball switched to the left flank saw Antoine Semenyo feed flying full back Milos Kerkez and his square cross struck Brentford’s midfielder Janelt for an unfortunate own goal.
The hosts conceded an equaliser in the 30th minute when an in-swinging corner from Bryan Mbeumo was headed in by Wissa, who leapt above the home defence with goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga mistiming his attempt to punch the ball to safety.
Mbeumo might have had a second but shot narrowly wide after a quick counter attack, while Kevin Schade’s pace set up another chance for the visitors but his pass inside to Wissa did not find his teammate.
Bournemouth were denied by the crossbar two minutes into the second half when Justin Kluivert’s pinpoint cross saw Semenyo rise unimpeded to power his header against the woodwork.
The hosts were caught out again, this time by Schade’s long throw that was allowed to bounce all the way through to Norgaard who rammed it home from six yards out to seal the victory.
"All of our set-piece goals are straight from the training pitch, it's something we work on during the week but we still have to execute it," Norgaard said.
It was the first time since they have been in the Premier League that Brentford have won five away league games in a row.
"It's nice that we've created good form away from home but now we need to start winning games at home, which we did so brilliantly at the start of the season," Norgaard added.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis, Andrew Cawthorne andc Ed Osmond)
