Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola considered stopping Justin Kluivert taking his third penalty in the 4-2 win at Wolves which saw the Dutchman create Premier League history.
Kluivert became the first player to score a hat-trick of penalties in the competition as the Cherries ran riot at Molineux in a crazy game which saw four goals in the first 18 minutes.
Two of those were Kluivert spot-kicks either side of Milos Kerkez’s goal and after Jorgen Strand Larsen’s second goal of the day for Wolves brought it back to 3-2 in the second half, the Cherries forward completed his rare treble to wrap up the points.
What a day for Justin Kluivert 🎯
— Premier League (@premierleague) November 30, 2024
He scores the first ever hat-trick of penalties in Premier League history, and Bournemouth claim an incredible win on the road!#WOLBOU pic.twitter.com/Bnv8cqZvuo
But Iraola had doubts whether he should have stepped up.
“I don’t remember it happening before, it has to be difficult, especially the last one – I was not completely sure I should allow him to take the third one,” he said.
“He is good, I suffered him in Spain (Kluivert spent a season on loan at Valencia while Iraola was with Rayo Vallecano) and I remember very well.
“It is difficult I suppose, every time you shoot the first one, you give information to the keeper.
“You have been preparing in the week, he has had two different approaches in the first two, I was not fully sure in the third one on what he was going to do but he has been very, very good.
“I suppose he would not have been happy but in the end I have to think of the points.
“I didn’t take the decision to say anything. I hoped they would decide the right thing, today he was full of confidence.”
Wolves boss Gary O’Neil says his goalkeeper Jose Sa has his “full support” after he confronted angry fans at half-time as the home side’s recent revival was brought to an abrupt halt.
Sa gave away two of the spot-kicks as he was tackled receiving back passes and went to argue with irate fans, who were subsequently ejected.
O’Neil, faced chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” from Wolves fans at full-time, did not see the incident but offered his backing to the Portuguese goalkeeper.
“I think situations like this that we’re in, as I say, has heightened emotions and responses,” O’Neil said.
“Jose Sa has my full support, whatever he needs from me he will get. He has my full support.
“The passes he received today he shouldn’t have received. The first one he can clear much quicker. Of course he can.
“None of the players have anything but my full support. We tackle this difficult situation together.
“We have just gone four unbeaten in the Premier League against some tough opposition.
“So we’ve had a bad day today, but it’s important not to overreact to a game that got away from us very, very early, and especially when we have two more big games coming in the next 10 days.”
