Wasteful Villa held by Bournemouth after Evanilson’s late goal

BIRMINGHAM, England: Hungry Aston Villa had to settle for a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth after Evanilson’s last-gasp effort canceled out Ross Barkley’s opening goal against the dominant Premier League hosts on Saturday.

Despite being devastated by defeat at the death, Unai Emery’s side nevertheless moved up to third in the table with 18 points and extended their unbeaten run to 11 games in all competitions.

Buoyed by another Champions League win in midweek, Villa scored against Bournemouth early on, missing numerous chances before second-half substitute Barkley headed home Leon Bailey from close range in the 76th minute.

Bournemouth defended doggedly throughout but tried to equalize in stoppage time and achieved it when Brazilian striker Evanilson lost his mark and glanced Marcus Tavernier’s superb free-kick past Villa goalkeeper Emi Martinez.

The 96th-minute goal, which was the final touch of the match, delighted the visiting fans and gave Bournemouth a barely deserved share of the spoils, taking them to 10th place with 12 points.

Prior to this, Bournemouth goalkeeper Mark Travers made a series of impressive saves to deny Villa the ball. The home side also failed to score in the first half after the ball went several millimeters out of play before John McGinn put it into the net.

Villa players Amadou Onana, Ezri Konsa, Pau Torres, Ollie Watkins and John Duran saw chances saved or wide of goal to the disappointment of another bumper and the waiting crowd at Villa Park.

“You feel intimidated here and it’s hard to survive, but we held on and got a draw,” said Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, praising Travers for keeping the visitors in the game.

“It’s always nice when you have a point in the last minute of a game. I don’t think we played well, but we fought well. It was a great goal at a great moment,” the Spaniard added about the match. Equalizer at the last second.