Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo says the Cherries deserve a shot at European football after his first-minute goal was good enough to see off Fulham.

The Cherries are on track for their best ever Premier League season and are up to eighth place – just seven points off a top-five place and six behind Aston Villa in seventh.

With the Premier League’s top five guaranteed a Champions League spot next year, eighth could be enough for a Conference League qualification spot, as long as League Cup champions Newcastle and the winners of the FA Cup finish in the top seven.

Semenyo said: “All season long we have been grinding and beating the top six teams. This little phase we are going through, losing and drawing, every team goes through that but that is why this win is so important.

“I feel like with what we have done this year we do definitely deserve the European places.”

“That can’t happen… you cannot defend like this. It’s impossible.” ❌

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Manager Andoni Iraola was impressed with his side as they won at home for the first time since January.

Evanilson should have added to Semenyo’s early strike but the hosts had to dig in and defend well as Fulham bossed the second half.

Iraola told Sky Sports: “I am very, very pleased with the performance. I think we needed this performance, defending our own box well, the clearances, the blocks, the basics, the set plays.

“To finish with a clean sheet is so valuable because normally when we create chances we score goals, defensively is where we have lacked something in recent games and today we were very good.

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“We knew that Fulham are very good on the ball. For the first 55-60 minutes we pressed really well but then at the end you are always going to suffer. We had to concede the territory a little bit, go more compact and defend the box, and deal with the crosses.

“This win comes in the perfect moment for us. Next week we have another of these games against Crystal Palace, same as Fulham they are playing very well so let’s recover well and arrive in a good spot.

“The standings have been really close in the last few months so every result is going to be key.”