Watford vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Premier League.
Vicarage RoadAttendance20,019.
Report and free highlights as Francisco Sierralta own goal and Hee-Chan Hwang late tap-in give Wolves 2-0 win at Watford; Nelson Semedo misses fine chances to earn bigger victory, Moussa Sissoko sees rare Watford chance saved
Saturday 11 September 2021 19:14, UK
Hee-Chan Hwang's debut goal helped earn Wolves their first points of the season as they beat a poor Watford side 2-0 at Vicarage Road.
Coming into the game without a point or a goal to their name, it looked likely to be another painful afternoon for Wolves' new manager Bruno Lage after Nelson Semedo fired wide when clean through with an hour gone.
But a helping hand from Watford's Francisco Sierralta, who headed into his own net from a low cross, finally got them off the mark with 15 minutes to go, and substitute Hwang then doubled the lead from close range after Marcal had hit the post.
Wolves' victory ended Watford's club-record run of 10 straight league wins coming into the game, inflicting a third consecutive defeat on Xisco Munoz, and dropped them below Wolves, who jumped out of the bottom three.
Wolves have done everything but score in their opening three games and continued that trend in the opening 15 minutes at Vicarage Road, where their intensity throttled Watford without causing Daniel Bachmann's goal any real trouble.
A welcome moment of individual quality between Ismaila Sarr and Sissoko on the right 15 minutes in, before the latter tested Jose Sa from the edge of the box, livened up the hosts, who almost caused him further problems when Josh King was inches away from connecting with Sarr's low delivery.
Semedo fired at Bachmann from a tight angle in added time as Wolves spurned the opportunity of the half - although they would have likely preferred to see the chance fall to one of their front three instead.
It was same again when the ex-Barcelona defender was left unmarked a second time to reach Fernando Trincao's pinpoint threaded pass on the hour mark. This time he beat the goalkeeper but missed the far post too, as it began to look like another one of those days for Wolves.
Lage's side did not give up. With Watford posing little threat since the break they pressed on and finally found a breakthrough as Marcal's low cross was headed past Bachmann by a stooping Sierralta.
The Chilean was only cleared to play by FIFA on Friday night after defying Chile's international call-up - but his redemption would be short-lived as his own goal finally gave Wolves the belief they had lacked.
With seven minutes to go they turned that into a second goal. Semedo's low ball across the six-yard box simply needed tapping home at the back post, where Marcal somehow turned it onto the woodwork and away, before Hwang found some greater accuracy to beat William Troost-Ekong's despairing challenge from close range.
Watford continued to pose little threat in the final minutes as Wolves saw out a comfortable victory, to finally begin looking up on the back of a first win of the season and instead leave their hosts, now on a run of three straight losses, as the ones looking over their shoulders.
Watford boss Xisco Munoz: "The team was, for 60-65 minutes at a good level, but after the goal we were a little down. We need to be a bit better in both boxes.
"We need to create more. We can give better solutions and arrive better in the opposition box, and it's three games now without scoring."
Wolves manager Bruno Lage: "It was a good game, a good performance from our side. The first 15 or 20 minutes it was our game, the way we played, found spaces, and created chances.
"The second half, with the changes we made at half-time, the game came to us - we continued to create chances, and it's a good result for us and a good result for our four games so far."
The final product still isn't quite there from Wolves' wing-walking enigma, although pretty much everything else was at Vicarage Road.
He created two chances, took on more duels than any of his team-mates (17) and completed 10 dribbles before he was taken off late on.
Watford travel to Norwich in their next Premier League game next Saturday; kick-off at 3pm.
Wolves are back at Molineux earlier the same day, hosting Premier League newcomers Brentford; kick-off at 12.30pm.
