Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur
A late goal from Roman Saiss gave Wolves a deserved point tonight after Spurs tried to defend a lead for almost 90 minutes.
Premier League: Wolves vs Spurs rounded off another great weekend of football with an electrifying start as Tanguy Ndombele put the visitors ahead within a minute. The hosts held out for 85 until Romain Saiss gave the visitors a late equaliser.
After showing a lot of promise over the first three months of the 2020/21 campaign, both teams wanted to finish the year with a bang, and Spurs started like a house on fire but then fizzled out while Wolves never gave up hope. The Wolves vs Spurs betting odds predicted a tight game with the draw at 3.11, but maybe if Spurs had been a little more adventurous they would have had a happier Christmas.
Highlights of the game
There were just 57 seconds on the clock when Spurs took the lead and Wolves keeper Rui Patricio had already made a save to deny Heung-Min Son. The South Korean took the resulting corner and after a clearance from Conor Coady, Ndombele fired home from around 20 yards. Patricio had shifted his weight onto his right foot and left himself too much to do as Ndombele hit a sweet shot low to his left.
That early goal played right into the hands of Jose Mourinho’s plan as Wolves now had to chase the game, and so they did. The speedy Adama Traore left Ben Davies in his wake before squaring for Daniel Podence but Hugo Lloris saved well. 18-year-old Fabio Silva won and scored a penalty in Wolves’ last outing at Burnley and he was a key man in attack as the hosts pressed to get back into the game. He came the closest to grabbing a first-half equaliser on 28 minutes when he evaded a marker to meet a low cross from Nelson Semedo but he smashed his shot inches wide and into the side netting.
Podence fired another shot easily saved by Hugo Lloris, who has been a calming influence between the sticks at Spurs for 275 Premier League games; and he may well have fancied leading his team to another win as they went into half time 1-0 up.
The second half almost began as explosively as the first when Silva fell under a challenge from Eric Dier. Take a look at the Wolves vs Spurs highlights to see it was a mightily close call. The young Portuguese striker screamed for a penalty and Dier had made the faintest of touches but Silva’s theatrical dive failed to win the penalty.
Coady upended Ndombele when he was almost clean through and earned a yellow card for his trouble, but Dier’s free-kick was weak, and then Lloris came to Spurs’ rescue after a great run and cross from Pedro Neto almost presented Silva with a goal. With time running out Ruben Neves stretched Lloris with a well-struck shot and then, with five minutes remaining, Wolves finally got their reward.
Neves swung over a corner and Romain Saiss met it at the near post to glance his header beyond Lloris and into the net.
Key statistics
Spurs came into the game on the back of two defeats and Wolves avoided that fate after losing to Burnley on Monday.
Jose’s team have lost nine points in the last ten minutes of games this season, and that’s a major worry for a manager who expects his team to defend narrow leads.
They are yet to lose consecutive games away under Mourinho but have failed to beat Wolves away for the first time in four meetings.
But Wolves like to score late, netting in the last five minutes for the third game in succession.
And tonight was a special night for Wolves skipper Conor Coady’s who made his 250th appearance in the gold and black.
What’s next?
There’s plenty of Premier League action to enjoy here at SBOTOP this week, and next up, Wolves head to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United who played a big part in an exciting 2-2 draw with Leicester City on Saturday. That’s a game well worth watching.
Meanwhile, Spurs are at home to struggling Fulham next, and then on the 2nd January they meet Leeds who got back to winning ways this weekend, but Jose Mourinho will be targeting six points from those two games to get back into title contention.
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