Millwall vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
The DenAttendance13,121.
Tuesday 26 December 2017 17:55, UK
Jake Cooper's header earned Millwall a 2-2 draw with Sky Bet Championship leaders Wolves in a belting Boxing Day contest at The Den.
Wolves had looked set for their ninth win in their last 10 games after coming from behind to lead thanks to Romain Saiss' strike after 56 minutes. But the Lions deserved a point for their battling performance, as they became the first team to score against Wolves in five games and gave the teams behind them a chance to close the gap at the top of the table.
A superb through ball by Ruben Neves led to Wolves' first clear chance of the game, as the Portuguese played in Matt Doherty, whose shot was kept out by Jordan Archer at his near post. From the resulting corner, the Lions broke brilliantly to open the scoring as Jed Wallace bent the ball around the Wolves defence for Lee Gregory to slide the ball beyond John Ruddy.
Aiden O'Brien then prodded George Saville's dangerous cross wide at the far post, in what was a good spell from the hosts. But Helder Costa should have equalised for Wolves after 25 minutes when he was denied by Archer's legs after he had been put through by another superb pass by Neves.
The visitors did pull level right on the stroke of half-time as Ivan Cavaleiro put Costa in behind down the right and his low cross was touched in from close range by Diogo Jota, for his 10th goal of the season.
Millwall almost regained the lead three minutes after the restart when Saville's pass was deflected to put Gregory through on goal, only for Ruddy to save bravely at his feet.
Instead, it was Wolves who led for the first time when Costa teed the ball up for Saiss and while the Moroccan's effort from 25 yards was well struck, Archer will be disappointed he could not keep it out.
The visitors were now looking to make the game safe and almost did so when Jota diverted Neves' mishit effort goalwards, only for Archer to push the ball away.
With 18 minutes left, the Lions squared the game up again when Shaun Hutchinson kept Wallace's corner alive to allow Cooper to nod in from a couple of yards out.
Wolves nearly nicked the points in the third minute of stoppage time when Archer redeemed himself by pushing away Barry Douglas' free-kick.
Neil Harris: "Against good teams, if you switch off you're going to get punished and I think we switched off about three times, probably, in 90 minutes and got punished on one of the occasions.
"The reaction when they came out in the second half was excellent, we could have got our noses in front again but didn't and the reaction to their second goal was top drawer from everybody, from the fans as well. I'm really pleased with a point - no one was short-changed today in the crowd, that's for sure."
Nuno: It's not an indifferent result, 2-2 against Millwall away from home. I knew that Millwall were able to play the way they did. There was a moment of distraction for us and we have to improve on that.
"I enjoyed my first experience of playing on Boxing Day - we are professionals and we are ready to play every game, in every day. It's a special moment for our families and our fans. We would have liked to have given them a victory, but I think they would have been proud with the result."
