The Brazilian's deflected strike early in the second half was enough to seal all three points at Craven Cottage, where both sides played the entire second half with 10 men after Ryan Christie and Joachim Andersen's dismissals.

Fulham went close to breaking the deadlock in the 29th minute when Timothy Castagne's cross was met by Rodrigo Muniz after a neat move, but the forward could only head wide from eight yards out.

Castagne was involved again as Bournemouth was reduced to 10 men 12 minutes later, with Christie given his marching orders after a video assistant referee (VAR) review after a rash challenge from behind on the full-back.

However, the hosts' numerical advantage only lasted until first-half stoppage-time, when Andersen's two-footed lunge on Adrien Truffert was also punished by a straight red card after a VAR review.

Junior Kroupi was unfortunate to see his curling effort hit the crossbar six minutes into the second half, but Bournemouth opened the scoring soon after, with Rayan's 25-yard drive finding the net via a slight Calvin Bassey deflection.

Oscar Bobb fired over and Kevin's effort was tipped over by Djordje Petrovic as Fulham sought a response. The Cottagers went closest in the 94th minute when Josh King rattled the crossbar from a tight angle, but the visitors held out to tighten their grip on sixth place.

Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola quashed any speculation linked to his next employment, having already announced he will leave Bournemouth at the end of the season.

"I have no rush to make decisions. I'm so focused on these last two games," he said.

"It's massive for me personally to finish these beautiful three years in a lovely way. Then we'll have time [to discuss the future]."

Fulham boss Marco Silva disagreed with the decision to send off Andersen during a game that all but saw the Cottagers' own European ambitions end.

"Completely undeserved, is the first thing I want to say," he said. "Eleven against eleven, we were clearly the best team on the pitch. I didn't see any images that showed me it was a red card.

"The red card [Andersen’s] completely changed the dynamic of the game.

"[European qualification is] probably going to be out of our control. We have to focus on the table and look at our next two games."