Bournemouth Host AC Milan on the Anniversary of a Bury Defeat
Bournemouth host AC Milan in the Europa League on Thursday, with kick-off at 8pm BST at the Vitality Stadium. It is fifteen years to the day since the club last played a competitive match on this date, and it lost that one 2-1 at home to Bury.
The Europa League is the second club competition in Europe, sitting below the Champions League. Bournemouth are in their first season in it, which makes this a debut campaign in every sense. BBC Sport notes the contrast with 2011, when Bournemouth were playing in the third tier of English football, then called League One.
On 22 October 2011, Bournemouth sat 21st in that division with 12 points from 14 games. Marc Pugh scored for the home side, but Giles Coke scored for Bury and the visitors took the points. Bournemouth were a club fighting to get out of the bottom half of the table. Fifteen years on, they are in the Europa League proper.
Their European story so far has included a 3-0 win over Sturm Graz. BBC Sport reports that 12,070 fans watched that game, the club's highest attendance of the 21st century. That crowd is a good sign of what the Vitality Stadium can feel like on a European night.
Marcus Tavernier, the Bournemouth midfielder, called the fixture an "unbelievable moment" in the club's own interview. For a club of Bournemouth's size, playing one of the most decorated names in European football at home is a big night by any measure.
AC Milan arrive as seven-time European champions. They come into the game after wins over Salzburg and Atalanta, and this is their third match in the league phase, the stage of the competition where every club plays a set run of eight games in one shared table. Milan's supporters have had their own route to the ground. Away-sector tickets went on sale on 21 September and cost €37, according to AC Milan's ticketing announcement.
For Bournemouth, the evening is a chance to show how far the club has travelled since that wet afternoon in 2011. For Milan, it is another test of a campaign that has only just begun. Both clubs have something to play for, and a Thursday night under the lights on the south coast should be a lively one.
