2 November 2024
Wolves 2 Crystal Palace 2
Gary O’Neil’s side had started to show some real grit in their performances of late. They were robbed of a point against Man City but then staged a late comeback against Brighton to take a share of the spoils. Crystal Palace were the visitors to Molineux, who themselves had bagged their first win of the season against Tottenham last weekend.
The hosts had lost all four of their opening home matches. This needed to change if they were going to get themselves out of the bottom three. However, it was The Eagles who started the brighter. As a corner was whipped in, Wolves struggled to clear their lines. It dropped to Mateta who drilled a shot towards goal. It was heading in, with the keeper beaten, until it struck the back of Chalobah.
Crystal Palace could not believe that they had not taken the lead. The French striker had done everything right but his teammate was unable to react quickly enough to get out of the way. It was an early let-off for the hosts. They needed to deal with the set-piece threat of Oliver Glasner’s side far better than this if they were to have any hope of getting something from this game.
O’Neil’s side struggled to create chances in the first-half. When they do, you can almost guarantee that Cunha will be involved at some point. He played a sublime pass in behind the Palace defence to pick out Sarabia. He waited for the keeper to react before trying to take it around him. Fortunately for the visitors, Henderson managed to get a touch on the ball to take it away from goal.
The Wolves forward seemed to want a penalty for the challenge but neither the officials nor VAR saw fit to award anything. Looking at the replay, The Eagles’ keeper did connect with him in a tangle of legs but the fact that his hand got to the ball seemed to negate the initial challenge. As a result, the sides went in at the break level.
Straight after the restart, Wolves came forward. Cunha played another defence-splitting pass into the path of Sarabia. He had time on the ball and acres of space with no Palace defenders in sight. As Henderson looked to close him down, he drilled his shot straight into the face of the visitors’ keeper. Those are the rules of goalkeeping, use whatever you can to protect your goal.
Henderson seemed somewhat stunned afterwards, if not a little concussed. Not that Glasner will have been too concerned, all that mattered at this stage was that the scores were still level. Aside from that early Mateta chance, Crystal Palace had struggled to create anything of note in the final third. They were looking blunt in attack without the influential Eze.
Sarr won a free-kick in a dangerous position. As Hughes worked it into the box, Strand Larsen headed the ball away from his own keeper. It dropped to Chalobah, who drilled it into the goal from a tight angle. It was another gift from Wolves as we head ever closer to Christmas. Gary O’Neil stood on the touchline wondering whether their stadium had been built on an old Indian burial ground.
The visitors could, and should, have doubled their lead. More indecision in defence saw the ball drop to Sarr in the middle, with the goal at his mercy. Somehow, the former Watford man struck his half-volley over the crossbar. Had he scored, you feel it would have sealed the win for The Eagles. Instead, this game was still balanced on a knife-edge.
As Palace came forward once again, they had numbers on their opponents. Nketiah tried to slide a pass in but it was cut out by Bueno. His long pass downfield picked out Cunha, who brilliantly took it on his chest to leave Chalobah out of the game. He calmly slipped it into the path of Strand Larsen, who slotted under Henderson to draw Wolves level.
This game had started to heat up as time was running out. As the hosts crossed into the back post, Guedes laid it off into the path of Gomes. He side-footed his shot into the bottom corner to turn this game on its head. Moments ago the home fans were chanting ‘you don’t know what you’re doing’ to their manager, now they had the lead.
Crystal Palace were not done yet. They put the hosts under some pressure and forced a corner. As Wolves failed to deal with the cross, it dropped to Guehi at the back post. The England defender swept the ball home to draw The Eagles level. Molineux was silenced apart from the fans who had made the trip from the capital.
The visitors thought they had won it when Mateta put the ball in the back of the net. The referee immediately blew his whistle as he felt that Jose Sa had been impeded from gathering the ball in the build-up. VAR checked the incident and decided that there was no clear and obvious error from Anthony Taylor to intervene.
As a result, the points were shared but both managers will feel they could have won this game. Wolves remain winless at home but things could have been a lot worse. Jose Sa will be grateful that the referee deemed he was fouled before Mateta slotted home in the closing stages of the game. Despite the point, the hosts now find themselves rooted to the bottom of the table.
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