Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur (11 Nov, 2023) Game Analysis،
Wolves stunned Tottenham 2-1 with stoppage-time goals from Pablo Sarabia and Mario Lemina on Saturday, thwarting the visitors in their bid to regain top spot in the Premier League table.
Gary O’Neil’s decision to bring on Sarabia as a late substitute paid off as the Spaniard scored the equalizer in the 91st minute and provided the assist for the winner in the 97th minute.
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The result puts Spurs second in the table behind Manchester City, while Wolves climb to 12th ahead of the weekend’s other fixtures.
“It’s an incredible feeling, we pushed so hard. We deserve this match,” Lemina told TNT Sports.
“We had the best tactics to play against them and we showed it today. I scored the winning goal and I’m really happy.”
Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou has been forced to field a makeshift back four due to injuries and suspensions, with the only regular in the starting line-up being Pedro Porro.
But the right-back made an impact inside three minutes when he combined with Dejan Kulusevski to cross the ball into the box and set up 22-year-old Brennan Johnson for a close-range strike – his first goal for the club.
The first half was end-to-end despite a lack of clear-cut chances and Wolves’ best opportunity came after the half-hour mark when Lemina forced a fine reflex save from Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario.
Wolves played positively in the second half, with Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and Rayan Aït-Nouri repeatedly managing to take on players with the ball, but they lacked quality in the final third to equalize.
Hwang Hee-Chan and Sasa Kalajdzic both saw efforts go wide as Spurs clung to their advantage, but Sarabia finally gave the home side the equalizer in the 91st minute when he controlled from expertly bowled Matheus Cunha’s cross and volleyed home from an angle.
With a draw on the cards, Wolves took a quick free kick in the 97th minute and Lemina timed his run perfectly to get on the end of Sarabia’s pass and place the ball into the bottom corner for all three points.
“It’s always a tough game here. Wolves are always going to be strong and we ran out of legs at the end,” Postecoglou said.
“It’s understandable, a lot of these guys didn’t play. They scored a few good goals, which were difficult to concede.”
