Wolves avoided a fifth defeat in a row as they defeated Aston Villa 2-0 at Molineux on Saturday.
An energetic and positive first-half performance saw the hosts take the lead after Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s precise finish beat Emiliano Martínez, before a more even second-half saw an equaliser for Villa harshly ruled out following yet another contentious VAR decision at Molineux.
Villa’s efforts fell short though, as Matheus Cunha brilliantly secured victory for Wolves in the 97th minute after a clinical breakaway.
As it happened
Vítor Pereira’s managerial career at Wolves had gotten off to a fairly promising start, with wins against Leicester City and Manchester United offering hope that their season could be revived. However, following four consecutive defeats in the league, his side were sat uncomfortably in the relegation zone ahead of a crucial West Midlands derby. Aston Villa, meanwhile, were heading into the game full of confidence after confirming their spot in the Champions League round-of-16 earlier on in the week.
It was the home side that came racing out of the blocks at Molineux, though. They were dominant, lively and aggressive – everything Aston Villa weren’t.
With 12 minutes on the clock and with their first chance at goal, Wolves took the lead thanks to Jean-Ricner Bellegarde. The Frenchman pulled away from Boubacar Kamara and was precisely found by Pablo Sarabia, who fed a cute pass in behind the Villa defence. Bellegarde had Gonçalo Guedes waiting for a tap-in in the six-year box but opted to shoot himself, firing his effort in at the near post, perhaps catching Emiliano Martínez by surprise, to score just his second goal of the season.
Embed from Getty ImagesWolves then missed a flurry of chances to extend their lead. First, Matheus Cunha spurned a brilliant 1-on-1 chance in the 35th minute. Wolves broke away to Villa’s dismay, who were adamant that there was a foul on Morgan Rogers. The referee dismissed their claims, allowing for Wolves to send a long ball through to Cunha. He outmuscled Kamara, who had a tough evening in an unfamiliar role at centre-back, and found himself through on goal. However, a slight hesitation prevented him from working an angle, and his shot was comfortably saved in the end by Martínez, whilst Guedes couldn’t convert the rebound on target.
Nearing the end of a dominant first half, Guedes was able to muster some decent opportunities of his own. Hitting Villa on the counter-attack again, Bellegarde played a lovely weighted pass into the stride of the Portuguese forward but he could only drag his shot wide of the post. Moments later, the striker had an effort blocked by Martínez.
It had been a tough opening 45 minutes for Unai Emery’s men. His side had failed to register a shot on target, or even attempt a shot inside the penalty area. They were certainly fortunate to be just the goal behind at the break, whilst Wolves would’ve been frustrated at their lack of ruthlessness.
Emery made four changes at the interval to try and ignite a second half resurgence. He brought on Ian Maatsen, Leon Bailey, Amadou Onana as well as Donyell Malen, who replaced the injured Ollie Watkins.
It was almost a tactical masterstroke from Emery. In the 53rd minute, Villa thought they’d equalised from a cleverly worked free-kick routine. Bailey, from a shooting position, passed the ball to McGinn who flashed the ball across goal for Malen to equalise. Controversially, though, the goal was ruled out for offside on Rogers who was deemed to have impeded Nélson Semedo in the build up.
Barring that, Villa failed to gain any form of momentum and hardly threatened an equaliser. A couple of efforts on goal were comfortably saved by Jose Sá and blocked by a motivated Wolves defence.
With time running out, Villa were then hit by a sucker punch in the dying moments of the game. Cunha was once again able to break away and the Brazilian wrapped up the three points for Wolves. He’d worked his way into the box and just as it seemed as if the opportunity had gone, he took a snap shot at goal to beat Martínez.
Embed from Getty ImagesFor Wolves, it was a pivotal victory to boost their survival prospects. The three points saw them leapfrog Leicester and bounce out of the relegation zone. Villa, on the other hand, will have much to dissect if they are to improve going forward. It is now just one win in eight games immediately following a Champions League fixture this season.
The lineups
WOL: Sá; Agbadou, Gomes, Doherty: Aït-Nouri, Bellegarde, André, Semedo; Cunha, Sarabia, Guedes
AST: Martínez; Digne, Kamara, Konsa, García; Ramsey, Tielemans, Bogarde, McGinn; Rogers, Watkins