Remarkable fight back sees Wolves triumph over VAR and ten man City
Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 v Manchester City 2
Where were you on Friday 27th December 2019? If at the Molineux in Wolverhampton then you were one of the favoured few to witness a football match that had everything. Controversy, injustice, resilience, individual brilliance and a breathless outcome, redolent of the underdog overcoming adversity. Throw in a pantomime villain and this was the Premier League writ large. Just a shame that in allowing Amazon to air the game, finance for the league is fracturing. The end point will be pay per view, a circumstance which will favour big over small and ultimately dilute the entertainment on offer. But that’s for the future. Let’s start with the controversy.
I think it is time that VAR was consigned to the filing cabinet marked “Experiments that seemed like a good idea at the time but proved an unmitigated failure”. It was minute 22 that it all kicked off as Riyad Mahrez advanced to the bye-line albeit in the Wolves box. Leander Dendoncker’s right boot made the slightest of contacts with the prancing City winger’s foot. Undeterred Mahrez continued until his brain thought “Dive”. Which he did, to howls of derision from the South Bank. In fairness to referee Martin Atkinson he too saw “Dive” and gave a goal kick. But VAR was summoned. It took an age to adjudicate the decision one which eventually over ruled Atkinson. Penalty awarded. Thus did VAR fail on all counts. 1. It undermined the referee - who up until that point had been performing well - and in so doing turned him into a figure of hate. 2. The adjudication had been taken in a vacuum which delayed proceedings for far too long and spoiled the flow of the game. 3. The decision was incorrect and therefore unfair. 4. It cause tempers in the South Bank to boil over resulting in missiles being hurled onto the pitch.
The ensuing events only added to the iniquity as Raheem Sterling’s first penalty was well saved by Rui Patricio only for VAR to determine that Conor Coady had encroached into the box before the ball had been kicked. Re-take ordered. Up stepped Sterling for attempt two, Pep Guardiolo screaming from the touch line that he should not do so. Again saved. But this time the ball went back to the taker who slotted into an empty net. Understandably this pleased the home fans no end but it was to the Wolves player’s great credit that they maintained their calm dominating what remained of the first half without ever creating a clear cut opportunity. By then Wolves should have at last have been on equal terms when in minute 12 Conor Coady’s delightfully flighted pass put Diogo Jota beyond the City back four with a free run on goal. But as the Wolves striker went to knock the ball over the advancing Ederson the latter cynically brought him down. Though the City keeper would play no further part in proceedings, a certain goal had been prevented. Further hurt followed when, with the second half only five minutes old, Sterling extended the visitor’s lead finishing beautifully following a slide rule pass from Bernardo Silva.
Two nil down and with their backs to the wall the stage was set for a remarkable Wolves fight back. And how. In minute 55 Adama Traore opened proceedings with a rapier strike from twenty yards. Traore was again involved in the second goal when on 82 he stole the ball from a complacent Benjamin Mendy before squaring it across the City goal from where Raul Jimenez side foot home. And with a tornado now coursing through the home side’s sails seven minutes later Matt Doherty darted in from the right before taking the return from Jimenez and firing home with a powerful left foot strike. In time added on Molineux was still coming to terms with what they had just witnessed as Sterling shaved the bar with a curling free kick. But that was it. Justice had been served and as I walked home to the sound of a joyous South Bank, Wolves had risen to within touching of a Champions league slot. Who, in 2014, would have thought it.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Patricio 7, Dendoncker 8, Coady 8, Saiss 7, Doherty 8, Castro Otto 6 Sub Vinagre, Neves 8, Moutinho 6, Traore 8, Jota 6 Sub Neto, Jimenez 8, Sub Bennett
Manchester City: Ederson 1 (Sent off 12 mins) Walker 6, Otamendi 6, Fenandinho 6, Mendy 6, Rodri 5, Bernardo Silva 7, Mahrez 5 Sub Garcia 5, De Bruyne 6 Sub Gundagon, Sterling 7, Aguero 4 Sub Bravo
Attendance: 31,674
Referee: Martin Atkinson 8
©Mark Brennand