West Ham scrape through to the third round of the Carabao Cup thanks to a late Jarrod Bowen winner.

A rather tricky draw saw West Ham host Bournemouth at the London Stadium. Both sides have made some big additions over the Summer and, while the Hammers were favourites, it was always going to be a tough game to call.

There was very little to seperate the two sides in the first 45 minutes. The Cherries had gotten themselves into some excellent positions to put the ball into the box, but their final pass was mostly abysmal. The hosts on the other hand really didn’t give Niclas Fullkrug much to work with on his English cup debut. Summerville was causing all sorts of issues for the opposition defence, but it never really led to much.

However, both Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Max Kilman were doing an excellent job at the back. Jean-Clair Todibo made his full debut for the club, but he clearly needs a little time to adjust. Unfortunately, Coufal carried on his subpar form. Fabianski did well between the sticks, making a superb save from a crafty flick on just before the end of the half.

After the break, Bournemouth had a spell where they were putting an incredible amount of pressure on West Ham’s defence. Thankfully the defensive players coped well with this and were able to create some opportunities for themselves.

On the balance of play, you’d probably have expected the away side to win, but they continued to be wasteful. Their Solanke replacement Evanilson came on in the second-half and he missed two absolute sitters.

West Ham used all five of their substitutions, and this paid dividends for Julen Lopetegui. Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paqueta in particular came on and instantly changed the game. It was the Brazilian who played a sensational chipped pass to Bowen who nearly wiggled his way through Bournemouth’s back line but the ball ended up at the feet of their star boy Kudus instead. The Ghanaian’s shot ended up deflecting off (what looked to be) Bowen’s hand to give the Hammers the win.

Not necessarily a deserved win for our Irons, but sometimes you need a bit of luck in football. A second consecutive win and a second consecutive clean sheet is massive for Julen Lopetegui, and he now faces an incredibly difficult third round tie away to Liverpool. For now though, they can celebrate the win and turn their attention to Manchester City on Saturday.

It was a real touch of magic from Bowen some would say, but they’ll need a lot more than that if they’re going to progress into the latter stages of the cup.