Wolves 2 Aston Villa 0 - Report

In front of a rowdy Molineux crowd the home side responded by making a fast start, as Jean-Ricner Bellegarde’s second goal of the season gave them a 12th minute lead.

A fatigued Villa struggled to get into the game as Wolves created several clear chances to extend their lead, but without a clinical streak they had to settle for a 1-0 lead at half-time.

Villa made four changes at the break and made a much stronger start to the second half, but were unable to capitalise on it against a resolute defence.

Matheus Cunha then added a second deep into added time to secure the important win and the local bragging rights.

Analysis

Vitor Pereira made three changes to his Wolves side after the defeat to Arsenal last time out.

Toti Gomes came in for Santi Bueno, meaning Emmanuel Agbadou moved to the centre of defence.

Then two enforced changes saw the suspended Joao Gomes replaced by Bellegarde and Goncalo Guedes come in for the injured Jorgen Strand Larsen.

Injury-hit Villa made two changes following their Champions League victory against Celtic.

Young full-back Andres Garcia came in for his Premier League debut, while John McGinn replaced Leon Bailey.

Injuries among the squad meant midfielder Boubacar Kamara had to fill in at centre-back.

Set pieces dominated the early stages of the game and Villa had a glorious opportunity to whip in a free-kick when Matt Doherty fouled Jacob Ramsey, but Youri Tielemans’ delivery was straight into the arms of Jose Sa.

At the other end, Guedes won a foul following an Ezri Konsa mistake and Cunha’s creative free-kick almost found a way through for Wolves.

Molineux was then sent into raptures when the hosts took the lead after 12 minutes.

Cunha initially won the ball back in a dangerous area before finding Pablo Sarabia on the edge of the box. His intelligent reverse pass picked up Bellegarde, who had made the run off Kamara, and the Frenchman fired into the bottom corner with a vicious strike before celebrating with a lot of relief after a tough period in his career.

Wolves had their tails up and came close to finding a second when Rayan Ait-Nouri and Cunha combined down the left and the latter crossed low, almost finding Sarabia.

Moments later, Bellegarde then whipped in a cross that came close to reaching Sarabia, as Wolves pushed to double their lead amid the loud Molineux atmosphere.

Wolves had a golden chance to make it 2-0 when they made some crunching tackles in defence, fed Sarabia in midfield and he pinged a long ball for Cunha.

The forward shrugged off Kamara and only had Emi Martinez to beat, but was caught in two minds as Konsa closed him down and he had his shot saved, before Guedes fired the rebound wide.

Another huge opportunity came when Sarabia won the ball in midfield and found Bellegarde, who released Guedes with just Martinez to beat once again, but he dragged his shot wide.

Guedes then had another opportunity just before half-time when Cunha slipped a pass through, but Martinez saved the shot from a tight angle.

In the end, Wolves were unable to add to their lead before the half-time whistle.

As the teams came out for the second half, Villa made a quadruple substitution with Ollie Watkins, Garcia, Ramsey and Lucas Digne coming off for Donyell Malen, Amadou Onana, Leon Bailey and Ian Maatsen.

Those changes galvanised the visitors, who made a much better start to the second half and looked more threatening going forward.

They had the ball in the net when Malen finished from a free-kick routine, but it was flagged offside and upheld by VAR, with Morgan Rogers offside in the build-up and interfering with play.

Head coach Pereira was also booked for dissent when that free-kick was given on the edge of the box.

Villa’s first shot on target came in the 57th minute, as Sa collected it, but the visitors were in charge of the second half as they fought for an equaliser.

VAR then had a brief look at a possible Wolves penalty when Malen caught Toti in the box, but the referee’s original decision of no penalty was not overturned.

Villa came close when the ball fell for Bailey just inside the box but his low shot was blocked by Agbadou.

But Wolves still carried some threat and created a chance when Bellegarde won the ball impressively and pinged the ball to Sarabia. His cross was very close to being met by Cunha.

Wolves made a double change after 70 minutes in an attempt to get more control over the fixture.

Moments later, Cunha nearly had his moment when he curled a free-kick just over the bar.

Sa was then called into action to make a strong save to deny Malen’s effort.

Moments later the Villa striker was played through again but Sa came off his line quickly to deny him, as seven minutes of added time were announced.

The home fans loudly chanted in support of their team deep into added time, as they kept Villa at bay before going up the other end with a late counter attack and securing the vital victory with a smart Cunha strike.

Key Moments

GOAL 12 Bellegarde fires Wolves into the lead

GOAL 90+7 Cunha secures the Wolves win

Teams

Wolves: Sa, Semedo, Doherty, Agbadou, Toti, Ait-Nouri (R.Gomes, 71), Andre, Bellegarde (Bueno, 87), Sarabia (Hwang, 79), Cunha, Guedes (Doyle, 71).

Subs not used: Johnstone, Dawson, Lima, Chirewa, Forbs.

Villa: Martinez, Garcia (Maatsen, 45), Konsa, Kamara, Digne (Onana, 45), McGinn, Bogarde (Nedeljkovic, 84), Tielemans, Ramsey (Malen, 45), Rogers, Watkins (Bailey, 45).

Subs not used: Olsen, Zych, Swinkels, Jimoh-Aloba.