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Four matches, four wins, twelve points and a trip to Prague that briefly looked like a trap. Bournemouth answered with the goal Adams had not managed in eleven months, then two more in the final twenty-five minutes.
The chance that was not taken
Bournemouth should have led in the thirtieth minute when former Wolves defender Ki-Jana Hoever stretched an arm into a cross. Lewis Cook stepped up and struck the inside of a post, and Sparta were reprieved.
Sparta, who have under-achieved domestically this season, were the better side for the first half-hour and pressed high enough to keep the visitors from settling.
Sparta's opener arrived in the thirty-fifth minute: goalkeeper Jakub Surovcik flung the ball out from a corner, Cook misjudged the interception and Singhateh was away.
It was the fourth league-phase match of Bournemouth's debut European season, one they had entered having won the first three without conceding, a start that already places them close to the last sixteen.
It was the first goal Bournemouth had conceded since the October defeat at Chelsea, and on the showing so far in Prague it looked like it might not be the last.
A captain's first goal in a year
The night turned in the 37th minute when Tobias Guddal, already booked, hauled down Alvaro Rodriguez and was shown a second yellow card, leaving the hosts a man down.
Bournemouth wasted little time punishing the numbers. Adrien Truffert won a ball on the edge of the area, Alvaro Rodriguez's shot was blocked and the clearance fell only as far as Adams.
Adams first-timed the loose ball into the bottom corner in the 57th minute, his first goal since 29 November 2025 against Sunderland and his first in European competition since RB Leipzig beat Atletico Madrid in the 2020 quarter-finals.
From the equaliser onwards there was only one team in the match, with Sparta unable to recover the ground they had covered in the opening half-hour.
Rose's side have played a high line and a direct style across four European matches, and it is Adams, a player hired for structure rather than goals, who arrived at the far end of the season's first long drought.
Twenty-five minutes of resolution
Bournemouth's winner came in the 81st minute when Ryan Christie took over from Truffert and slipped Evanilson in, the forward using his feet to create room and finish into the far corner.
Substitute Rayan added a third deep in stoppage time from distance, turning a hard win into a comfortable scoreline on the night.
The result leaves Bournemouth on twelve points from four matches, a position from which direct qualification to the round of sixteen is well within reach.
Sparta stay on four points from a record of one win, one draw and two defeats, and their domestic season remains the louder conversation in Prague than anything that happened on Thursday.
For the visitors the more useful number may be the clean-sheet streak that ended here: one goal conceded across four European games, three of them clean sheets.
Editor's take: Adams' goal will be replayed for months. It also tells the story of a player who keeps taking the same shots even when the returns are late.
Sources:
- The Guardian; Reported Nov 5, 2026
- UEFA.com; Reported Nov 5, 2026
- ESPN; Reported Nov 5, 2026
