Bournemouth's staff and players celebrated qualifying for the Europa League by gathering around a "Rayanair" flag depicting their Brazil forward piloting a plane. The club's journey to this point has been well-documented, with former player and current club ambassador Steve Fletcher reflecting on the wild rise over two decades to playing Real Sociedad in the Europa League. Fletcher, who scored 121 goals across 728 appearances for Bournemouth, says: "It is for every supporter who has ever followed Bournemouth: past, present, for the people who passed away, grandparents, great-grandparents. I think everyone will feel very emotional on Thursday."
The scale of the achievement is not lost on Fletcher, who notes that Andoni Iraola, who grew up in the Basque Country, guided Bournemouth to San Sebastián. Iraola will return to Bournemouth with Liverpool on Sunday, and has sent best wishes to the club, including for a win. Bournemouth have been in the top flight for all but two seasons since their promotion in 2015, but Europe hits differently. Most of the squad watched the August draw in the canteen, and until this season David Brooks was used to midweek European matches meaning a night on the sofa.
Bournemouth's American billionaire owner, Bill Foley, predicted they would play in Europe within five years at the end of 2023. The club's first home game in the Europa League is against Sturm Graz next month, and the week after, Milan will visit. "Just to mutter the words Milan, AC Milan, in the same sentence as AFC Bournemouth, in a competitive fixture, is crazy," Fletcher says. The stand at the other end of the ground has been named after Fletcher since 2010.