Manchester United beat Wolves 4–3 thanks to a goal by Kobbie Mainoo in the 97th minute. It was a very exciting game.
To get their first league win away from home since late November, Erik ten Hag’s team went to Molineux. Things got off to a great start when Marcus Rashford scored his fifth goal of the season in the first five minutes. He was the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons.
After a little more than 15 minutes, the newcomers were ahead by two goals. A young Rasmus Hojlund scored a goal, but it was not the best one he will ever score. The Dane was there to steer the ball home after Luke Shaw’s ground cross went over Jose Sa.United might have been out of sight in the first 30 minutes, to be honest. Bruno Fernandes will feel like he should have done better with his shot that went past the post, and Hojlund almost had another when he picked off a Sa clearance.
On the last second of the half, Hojlund had the ball in the net by putting another shot through the legs of the Wolves goalkeeper. However, he was called offside because he didn’t time his run from Alejandro Garnacho’s pass correctly. It looked like Casemiro had scored a third goal with a header, but he was also too early. In just two minutes, United had two goals called out.
Wolves had a chance to make a memorable return after getting a penalty in the second half, but Scott McTominay’s header dashed some of that hope. Not all of it, though. Max Kilman’s shot from inside the United area went in after deflecting off of Onana and Diogo Dalot. The Red Devils were once again under pressure.
In the 95th minute, Neto scored an equalizer with an arrow after a quick counterattack from a United corner. Wolves’ dreams came true. The goal made the home fans in the stadium go crazy with joy. They never gave up on their team.
But there was still one more dagger left. As a bright spot in what has been a dull season for United, Kobbie Mainoo was there to sidefoot a striker into the corner and make sure Ten Hag’s team won a true Premier League classic.It had to be him, right? People had been talking about Rashford’s behavior off the field for days, but it only took him four minutes to score the first goal with a strike that fit the story of the game perfectly.
The number 10 for United came back into the starting lineup for the first time since his night out in Belfast cost him two weeks’ pay, and he wasn’t in the team that played Newport County in the FA Cup.
Ten Hag made it clear before the game that he thought the case was “closed,” and he stuck to that by starting Rashford at Molineux. The forward paid back his boss in the best way possible by unleashing a rocket of a shot that caught Jose Sa off guard.
Rashford opened up his right foot and guided his shot into the top corner after Rasmus Hojlund fed it to him in a neat way. That person who scored barely smiled, but he knows he couldn’t have asked for a better start.
Rashford kept playing with the kind of energy that makes you think he felt like he had something to prove long after he scored the goal.A lot was said about how hard it was for Hojlund in the first half of the season. The former Atalanta player was under a lot of pressure, especially since he cost an unbelievable £72 million.
So, after 14 league games without a goal, Hojlund began to get negative feedback. The 20-year-old has scored three goals in United’s last four league games, though. His close-range goal against Wolves came after two better ones against Aston Villa and Tottenham.
This latest goal won’t win any awards, but it did show that Hojlund has the positional knowledge that a top-level striker needs. By going on the run, he was able to take advantage of Sa’s bad goalkeeping.
Hojlund made sure he was always a problem for the Wolves defense, and Matt Doherty almost got red-faced when he was so close to scoring from a bad back pass.Fans of Chelsea may be confused about how Wolves got a penalty kick for what looked like little touch. On Wednesday night, the Blues had two stronger calls waved off.
Casemiro and Pedro Neto’s shins didn’t seem to touch much, but referee Jarred Gillet’s call was backed up by Paul Tierney in the VAR room at Stockley Park, and it was up to Pablo Sarabia to save the game for Wolves.
That’s exactly what the sub in the second half did. He didn’t let the stress that built up during the long VAR check affect him. As Onana dived in despair, Sarabia stepped up and carefully put his penalty kick down the middle, past him.Scott McTominay made a big difference for United again this season off the bench, but he doesn’t always get the praise he deserves.
Right after Sarabia gave the home team a goal back, McTominay scored from a corner kick to give the Red Devils back their two-goal lead and stop Wolves from building too much momentum after scoring the questionable penalty.
While Sa was stuck to the spot, the ball bounced off the ground and into the top corner. It wasn’t the most expertly executed header. That won’t bother McTominay or Ten Hag, though.Under Gary O’Neil, his team was clearly not as good as United’s for the first 50 minutes of the game. Still, they showed what they were made of and began to strut their stuff after that.
Players like Neto, Matheus Cunha, and Mario Lemina played very well for most of the second half, which made the game much more even.
Even though Wolves got off to a slow start, Neto’s goal made up for it. However, Mainoo’s magic moment in the dying seconds of the game cost them everything.Mainoo won’t feel much better after that for the rest of what looks like it will be a great career.
The 18-year-old’s calm finish belied his age and helped United win an exciting game. He had a great game no matter what the score was, staying calm many times when he had the ball.
The goal was so good that even the most experienced striker would have been proud of it. The striker got Kilman off balance and then curled his driven shot past Sa, which made the away fans go crazy.
What does this mean for the table?
United has gained some ground on teams around them in the table with this win. This is because Brighton and Chelsea both lost in the middle of the week.
After beating Wolves, Ten Hag’s United moved up from ninth to seventh in the table, passing both Eddie Howe’s Newcastle and the Seagulls.Wolves are now 11th in the table, two points behind troubled Chelsea, who are one spot ahead of them. It was clear that everyone connected with the club, from O’Neil to the players and the fans, was upset by the end of the game.
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