Adama Traore was heading in the right direction as a spirited Wolverhampton Wanderers surprised a wasteful Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 on the Molineux Stadium within the Premier League on Saturday.
Raul Jimenez, introduced on as a alternative for the injured Diego Costa, despatched a robust strike at Fraser Forster within the 82nd minute that the Spurs keeper may solely parry into the trail of Traore, who made no mistake together with his end.
The win moved Wolves up two locations to thirteenth within the desk, whereas Spurs keep fourth, 4 factors behind third-placed Manchester United, who journey to Anfield to tackle Liverpool on Sunday.
The defeat was Spurs’ second in a row after their 1-0 loss at Sheffield United within the FA Cup on Thursday.
“It’s been tough, a really disappointing week. All we can do is look forward now,” Spurs captain Harry Kane mentioned.
“We have 12 or 13 games now to push for that top four place. The games come around quick and we have to look to the next one.”
Spurs’ subsequent match is in opposition to AC Milan within the Champions League on Wednesday, the place they might want to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the primary leg in Italy.
Wolves, who misplaced Costa to an obvious knee damage within the first half, didn’t muster a single shot earlier than the break, with their supervisor Julen Lopetegui seemingly solely intent on maintaining Spurs quiet.
The Spaniard, who has guided Wolves out of the relegation zone and into midtable since taking on in November, deployed Mario Lemina in a man-marking position on Kane to nice impact within the first half.
Tottenham began strongly and will have taken the lead within the nineteenth minute when Dejan Kulusevski drew a sensible save from Jose Sa within the Wolves aim with a first-time shot.
Pedro Porro crashed a free kick in opposition to the crossbar simply earlier than halftime however Wolves’ spoiling ways saved their opponents at bay for essentially the most half, with Kane unable to exert his ordinary affect.
Lopetegui made two adjustments at halftime, bringing on Nathan Collins for Pedro Neto and Traore for Lemina, and it was the 27-year-old Spaniard who swung the tide within the dwelling facet’s favour.
Heung-Min Son despatched a deflected shot in opposition to the bar for Spurs within the forty seventh minute, however that was pretty much as good because it bought for the guests, who paid the worth for failing to regulate to Wolves’ change in ways at halftime.
Wolves got here inside inches of taking the lead within the 51st minute when Nelson Semedo failed to attach with Jimenez’s cross on the far put up.
Ruben Neves served a warning of what was to come back when he drew two saves from Forster in fast succession within the 69th minute earlier than rifling a shot over the bar after a nook.
“We worked really hard to get the three points today,” mentioned Neves, whose crew are six factors away from the relegation zone. “We are in the middle of a war, playing every single game as a final.”
Wolves tore into Tottenham with ever-increasing regularity because the match wore on.
Matheus Cunha additionally firing agonisingly broad within the 73rd minute after being performed in by Jimenez and there was even time for Traore to crash a cross of the woodwork within the dying minutes as Spurs slumped to a second defeat in a row.
Brighton thrashes West Ham
Brighton & Hove Albion beat a listless West Ham United 4-0 at dwelling in a one-sided efficiency to reinforce its probabilities of qualifying for European competitors subsequent season.
Alexis Mac Allister, Joel Veltman, Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck had been the scorers as Brighton dominated from begin to end.
Source: sportstar.thehindu.com