(Football news) After being set up by Antony to the right of centre, Marcus Rashford forced Jose Sa to make an early save, but his shot lacked aggression or conviction. The Manchester United striker hardly touched the ball at all in the early going.
In those early exchanges, the home team was in control of possession, but neither they nor the visitors from the West Midlands were exerting enough effort to consistently test the other.
The first meaningful opportunity for Wolves came as Matheus Cunha broke quickly and fed Pablo Sarabia, whose shot took a tiny deflection off the far post and went wide. Soon later, Cunha himself fizzed a shot that was not too far off goal.
When Manchester United’s Rashford close-range header struck Nelson Semedo on the arm and body just before halftime, Manchester United players yelled for a penalty, but a VAR check passed without taking any action. During stoppage time, a brilliantly timed Max Kilman block stopped both Antony and Rashford from scoring.
After another swift counter and a protracted run from Matheus Nunes, Cunha struck the outside of the post at the back stick during a flurry of Wolves chances soon after the half. Then, Andre Onana made his first significant Premier League stop, deflecting a low Cunha attempt wide of the goal.
Once again, Cunha’s direct rushing down the middle created an opportunity for the Wolves, but Pedro Neto was only able to aim a furious shot straight at Onana goalkeeper for Manchester United, wasting a golden opportunity.
In the 76th minute, Varane broke the tie and took Manchester United on the lead, a huge turnabout from the previous play. Aaron Wan-Bissaka got into a good position and delicately lofted the ball into the six-yard box for Varane to forcefully meet with his head. This was how Wolves were made to pay for missing their chances. Varane’s goal took Manchester boys on ahead.
There was still work to be done for the home team, as Onana had to twice stop substitute Fabio Silva’s thunderous low efforts in the dying seconds. The same guy was also stopped by Luke Shaw’s amazing diving block as stoppage time approached.
The match had been rather uneventful for the officials as the timer counted down to its conclusion. There wasn’t much to mention aside from a handball call against Nélson Semedo, who had his arms inside his body, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s missed yellow card for a foul.
The incident that altered the weekend’s course occurred later, deep in the stoppage period. It was the sort of mistake that gives PGMOL, the organisation that oversees referees in English football, serious problems and thwarts its efforts to demonstrate the organisation is developing.
At Old Trafford was Jon Moss, the primary boss of Premier League referees. He went to the Wolves dressing room as soon as the final horn sounded to speak with Wolves manager Gary O’Neil and admit there had been a mistake. The chief refereeing official, Howard Webb, also acknowledged the error directly with O’Neil.
The error is acknowledged, in contrast to the previous administration at PGMOL, and remedial action will be implemented. Since such candour suggests bigger errors, Webb and his colleagues must grapple with this. Statistics from the independent key match incidents panel show that standards are rising and that there were fewer mistakes in the second half of the previous season. But people tend to remember the poor choices, not the excellent ones.
Also read: James Ward-Prowse signed for West Ham
