Paul Doyle was on point at Molineux this evening. His report has landed, so you know what to do: click, click, click. All that’s left is to wish Rui Patricio a speedy recovery, and all of you sweet dreams. Thanks for reading this report. Nighty night.
Jurgen Klopp speaks to Sky, firstly about Rui Patricio. “What an awful situation. I spoke to one of the staff and they are rather positive. It was a shock.” As for the game? “It’s all about the result. A big fight. We wanted three dirty points, we’re completely fine with that as we try to get back on track. We had very good moments when we should have done better offensively, but defensively the whole game was really good. We defended really well, that was our main target. The goal we scored was beautiful. We got the three points and everybody is fine. A lot of good news tonight. We go into the break with a positive feeling.”
As for the game, he tells Sky Sports: “We played a good game. Competitive, we had chances, we defended well, and we played good football. We had some chances we should have taken advantage of. The building and the creations was good. The result was not good, but the actions were fantastic. A lot of things to improve, but our positive attitude shows we can compete.”
Nuno gives us a very welcome update on Rui Patricio. “He is OK. He is conscious, fully conscious, he remembers what happened, he is aware, the doctors tell me he is OK. It was a collision with Coady, a knee on the head, but he is OK. We speak already, thank God he is OK. He is going to recover so everything is OK.”
Diogo Jota scored on his first return to Molineux in Liverpool red, but his first thoughts are with his old team-mate Rui Patricio. “Life is more important, I hope it’s nothing too serious, we wish him a speedy recovery.” Then the game and his winning goal: “These teams defend well, and we need to take advantage when they are unbalanced. They were at that moment, and the quick triangulation from Sadio to Mo and back again, then to me on the left, a good movement, a good goal, and it helped for the victory we were looking for a long time in the league. We need to improve, and hopefully this will start of a run until the end of the season.”
Wolves had their chances, a couple right at the end there. But Liverpool hang on for a victory that they deserved on balance ... just about. They leapfrog Everton and Tottenham into sixth place on 46 points, five behind fifth-placed Chelsea (51) who have played the same number of games (29). Their hopes of a top-four finish aren’t quite extinguished yet. Wolves remain in 13th on 35 points, but their main concern will be the health of keeper Rui Patricio, who took a nasty knock to the head/neck near the end of the match. Hopes and prayers.
FULL TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Liverpool
... that’s that. The whistle goes.
90 min +18: Space for Traore on the right. His cross is way too long. Neto tries again from the other flank. Alisson clears. Traore tries again. Too long again. Dendoncker hoicks out for a goal kick, and ...
90 min +17: Gibbs-White crosses dangerously from the left. Phillips, facing his own goal, hooks clear at full stretch. That’s excellent defending.
90 min +16: Wolves lump it forward in the Hail Mary style, but Alexander-Arnold calmly cushions a header back to Alisson.
90 min +15: Neto bustles down the left but Alexander-Arnold holds firm. He half-clears, but Wolves come again, Traore looping in from the right. The ball’s deflected towards Silva, who attempts a header from six yards but shoulders it instead. Alisson plucks from the sky.
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90 min +14: Salah, just inside the Wolves box on the right, tries to scoop a shot into the top left. It’s well wide. Had it been on target, Ruddy was stranded in no-man’s land.
90 min +13: Boly bundles Salah over out on the right. A free kick and a chance for Liverpool to load the Wolves box. Alexander-Arnold swings in, Oxlade-Chamberlain flicks goalwards, and Dendoncker is forced to eyebrow out for a corner.
90 min +12: All a bit low-octane so far, which is more than understandable.
90 min +11: The game finally restarts, Ruddy having replaced his stricken team-mate in the Wolves goal. There will be seven extra minutes played from this point.
90 min +9: Rui Patricio has finally been put onto the stretcher, and is carefully being carried off. May his god go with him.
90 min +7: The offside flag went up pretty quickly, in the old style, and that the new edict of pointlessly playing on with the flag kept down didn’t seem to be a factor here. Everything happened in a blur.
90 min +5: Players wait patiently, making sure they keep warm, passing and stretching.
90 min +3: The players of both sides congregate in the centre circle, as Rui Patricio continues to receive medical attention.
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90 min +1: They’ve announced seven added minutes, though Rui Patricio has yet to be stretchered off, the medical staff taking all the necessary time and care.
90 min: Ruddy prepares to come on for Rui Patricio. Wolves had used up all of their substitutes, but with the keeper having taken a sickening blow to the head, a concussion replacement can be made. That means Liverpool will get an extra sub, if they choose to make one. Both teams will obviously have a fair bit of injury time to play through.
88 min: On come the medical staff, as well as the stretcher.
87 min: While Salah was slotting home, Coady clattered into his own keeper. Rui Patricio is out flat, and lying stock still. Worrying signs.
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86 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain slips a lovely ball down the inside-right channel to release Salah on goal. Salah draws Rui Patricio and whips home. But it won’t count. Salah was clearly offside. No need for VAR.
85 min: Gibbs-White is immediately involved, sent into space down the middle by Silva’s clever flick. Gibbs-White tries to release Neto to his right, but Kabak is on hand to block and clear. A fine last-ditch intervention.
84 min: Gibbs-White comes on for the excellent Semedo.
83 min: A cute turn in the centre circle by Milner sends Oxlade-Chamberlain and Salah away on the attack. But they pause fatally on the edge of the Wolves box and the move peters out.
82 min: That’s Jota’s last act of the evening. The former Wolves man, this evening’s goalscorer, is replaced by Oxlade-Chamberlain. The sub is immediately involved, raking a long pass down the middle for Salah, who can’t control or wriggle free. Coady mops up.
80 min: Salah is sent into space down the inside right. He strides into the box and looks for the bottom left. Rui Patricio tips away. Mane comes back at Wolves down the left and feeds Jota, who whips towards the near corner. Rui Patricio swallows that one up.
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79 min: Mane looks to curl one into the bottom right corner from distance, but Rui Patricio is behind it all the way. Wolves go up the other end, Semedo crossing from the right. Silva wins a header on the penalty spot, but can’t generate enough power and it’s straight at Alisson.
77 min: Only Crystal Palace (13) and Newcastle United (12) have let in more late goals than Liverpool’s 11 this season. Mind you, Wolves have shipped ten themselves during the last 15 minutes of their matches, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
76 min: Wolves make their second change, replacing Neves with Dendoncker.
75 min: Liverpool may be leading, but they look exactly what they are: a team that have lost six of their last seven. Two-pass moves are at a premium. Wolves have a faint whiff of blood in the nostrils.
73 min: Traore has a dig from distance. It’s straight at Alisson, who parries and claims easily enough.
72 min: All a bit scrappy. Liverpool’s nerves look shredded already, as they slash at a series of attempted hoofs upfield. They can’t quite release the pressure. Here’s Peter Oh: “I agree with Edward Graves (47 min) that Thiago Alcântara tends to complain too much about referees’ reactions to his full-throttle challenges. I thought of him more as a pass master. I didn’t realise he could be so Paul Scholes in his approach to lunge-tackling opponents from dodgy angles. And then so Cristiano Ronaldo in pleading his purity and innocence.”
70 min: Wolves replace the disappointing Willian Jose with the highly promising Fabio Silva.
69 min: Milner’s first act is to clear the Liverpool box just in time, with Moutinho racing in, preparing to shoot. That had to be timed perfectly, or he’d have upended the Wolves midfielder and conceded a penalty.
67 min: Liverpool make a double change to their midfield, replacing Thiago and Wijnaldum with Keita and Milner. Thiago goes off shaking his head, but treading a disciplinary tightrope yet again, he surely can’t be surprised.
65 min: Traore cuts back from the right. Alisson manages to bundle the ball clear of a crowded box. Moutinho comes in from the left and falls just inside the box. He wants a penalty but the referee suggests Alexander-Arnold’s shove on his shoulder was gossamer-light. Wolves are beginning to ask some questions.
63 min: Rui Patricio plays Otto into trouble, just to the right of the Wolves box. Thiago comes in to nick, but is upended by Otto. The resulting free kick nearly drops to Mane, six yards out, but Rui Patricio claims, and it looks like Mane was offside anyway.
62 min: Wolves find themselves attacking, three on three. Willian has Otto to one side, Traore the other. His attempted pass to Traore is clumpish and whistles through to Alisson. A good situation wasted.
61 min: Jota spins Moutinho and is cynically clipped from behind by his victim, who is fortunate not to go in the old book.
60 min: Moutinho is very close to springing Traore down the inside right, but Robertson reads the danger, comes across, gets in the way, and earns a cheap foul.
59 min: Coady is very nearly stripped on the edge of his own box by Jota. Coady recovers just in time, before being hooked from behind by his frustrated ex-colleague. A free kick and a friendly nod.
58 min: A long pass down the Wolves left nearly releases Jota, but Kabak does enough to sort things out for Liverpool. The next goal is a biggie, but it’s not clear who’ll be scoring it. “Portuguese is definitely the most spoken native language in the starting line-ups tonight. I count nine, and Thiago probably another given his papa. A record in the Premier League?” I’ll pass it on to the good folk at The Knowledge, Will Wherity.
56 min: Robertson romps down the left and curls infield for Salah. His pass is too close to Boly, but the defender slams the ball straight into Salah, who is able to dribble into the box ... but no further. Boly recovers well, and with some help from Jonny, snuffs out the danger.
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54 min: Jonny and Neto combine neatly down the left, but can’t quite open Liverpool up. All of a sudden, the home side are enjoying a spell.
52 min: Saiss is booked for a fairly agricultural slide into his old pal Jota. Alexander-Arnold takes the resulting free kick, looping it long. Kabak nearly gets a head on it at the far stick, a decent attempt under pressure, but it flies out for a goal kick.
51 min: Salah takes up possession 25 yards out on the right. He attempts the spectacular, with simpler options either side. Goal kick. Wolves quickly counter, Traore crossing from the right. Alisson punching out. Again, the keeper not looking totally confident. But he does just enough to get it clear.
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49 min: But it’s Wolves who win the first corner of the half. Moutinho swings it in from the right. Liverpool struggle to clear it. Saiss curls in magnificently from the right and finds Coady, eight yards out. He should at the very least work Alisson; he should probably score, to tell the truth. But in aiming for the top right, he misses high and wide. Big chance. Wolves have had them.
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47 min: Liverpool restart with the air of a team who have been told to step it up a gear. Thiago is haring around in an extremely excitable style. Having already been booked, he needs to watch it. “Thiago has mastered that ‘what in the world are you talking about???’ look for EVERY SINGLE FOUL he commits,” notes Edward Graves.
Wolves get the second half underway. No changes.
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HALF TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Liverpool
Wolves should have gone ahead just before half-time. Instead they’ve gone behind just before half-time. The small margins.
GOAL! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Liverpool (Jota 45+2)
What a sucker punch. Liverpool launch a last-ditch counter as the half peters out, Phillips winning a towering header to send Mane down the middle. He slips to Salah, to his right. Salah returns to Mane first time. Mane shuttles it on further to Jota, also first time. The former Wolves man lashes towards the bottom left. The ball squeaks past Rui Patricio’s hand. Jota celebrates meekly, but that was a lovely goal.
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45 min: Wolves should be leading. Jonny reaches the byline down the left and cuts back into the box. The ball evades everyone in the middle, ending up at the feet of Neves, in acres just inside the area on the right. He’s got enough time to take a touch and line himself up ... but drags a dismal effort wide left with Alisson and Phillips standing there fearing the worst. What a chance for Wolves. What a let-off for Liverpool.
43 min: Neves tries to whip the resulting free kick into the bottom right from 30 yards. Alisson handles this one.
42 min: Alisson opts to punch the corner clear, when catching looked the easier option. The decision leads to some head tennis in the box, and Liverpool only half clear their lines, a state of affairs that leads to Thiago clipping Traore. Thiago looks surprised when he’s booked for persistent fouling, but nobody else does.
41 min: Semedo probes down the right and crosses. It’s headed out for a corner on the right by Kabak.
39 min: Thiago blocks Neves, and is fortunate to escape a booking. That’s two not-quite-yellows now. One more foul and you’d imagine he’ll be seriously testing the referee’s patience.
38 min: Salah jigs down the right and cuts back for Alexander-Arnold, who chips a cute diagonal ball forward, into the Wolves box. Mane improvises to meet it with his head, fully horizontal, inches from the turf. The ball whistles inches wide of the bottom right. That would have been a picture-book goal. On the touchline, Klopp applauds theatrically.
37 min: Neves is booked for hanging out a cynical leg to stop an in-flight Mane.
36 min: Semedo is this close to releasing Traore down the right with a sliderule pass. The red door slams shut, just in time.
34 min: After a rocky few minutes, Wolves have steadied the ship. There’s been a nice ebb and flow to this, with both teams taking turns to control possession.
32 min: Traore releases Semedo down the right. Semedo loops long, towards the far post, where Willian prepares to volley home. Phillips, airborne at full stretch, manages to flick away from the Wolves striker with his eyebrows, just in time. That’s great football all round.
31 min: Neto embarks on a power dribble down the left. It takes a couple of Liverpool players to put a stop to his gallop, then he clips Thiago on the heel as he prepares to counter. The match continues to trundle along at an entertaining lick.
29 min: A better stat for sore red eyes: Liverpool have enjoyed 89% possession during the last ten minutes. For all their travails this season, they’ve never been that far away from clicking back into their groove.
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27 min: Sky have just flashed up this statistic: from their last 70 shots, Liverpool have scored two goals. Two goals! That works out as a 3% conversion rate. Lies, damn lies, and all that, but what an odd state of affairs for a team that has been so effervescent for so long. And to think the defence has been copping all of the flak.
25 min: Some cute triangulation between Alexander-Arnold and Salah down the right. It leads to some pinball in the Wolves box, the ball not quite dropping for either Thiago or Salah. Eventually the ball’s worked wide left for Robertson, who crosses deep. Too deep. Goal kick.
23 min: Mane clicks through the gears on the left, reaching the byline but not quite able to find Salah in the six-yard box with his cutback. Then he launches another two attacks down the same flank. Neither come to anything, but he’s looking lively, and Liverpool are finally beginning to apply a little pressure.
21 min: The breezy end-to-end antics continue. Alexander-Arnold crossing deep from the right, not quite finding Mane or Salah, Traore striding down the middle but unwilling to slip a pass left to Willian, who was on the cusp of being offside.
20 min: The resulting corner, not so dangerous. Their old boy Jota tries to launch a counter, but soon runs out of road on the left.
19 min: Traore wins a corner down the right. The home side look dangerous in every attack.
17 min: A replay of the Mane chance suggests Rui Patricio might have laid a glove on the striker’s boot. Had Mane opted to go down, VAR might have had some rock’n’rolling to do.
15 min: At the start of that Wolves counter, Thiago clattered into Moutinho in his trademark clumsy style. There didn’t seem to be any intent - Thiago kicked the ground first, losing his footing - but it’s a sore one for the Wolves midfielder. The pair make up once he’s up and about again.
14 min: Wolves break upfield, and it’s their turn to waste a fine chance, as Willian, Traore and Neto overthink a three-on-two. This is great fun.
13 min: Thiago plays a lovely ball down the middle for Wijnaldum, who immediately feeds Mane. He’s free! He tries to round Rui Patricio on the left, but takes it too wide and can’t slot home. What a huge chance!
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11 min: Traore teases Mane down the right and flicks a cross into the Liverpool box. Willian can’t get a head on it. Liverpool break up the other end, Jota, Salah and Mane combining well down the left, only for the move to peter out near the Wolves area. A nice flow to this.
9 min: Wolves are enjoying the lion’s share so far. Liverpool are struggling to string anything together.
7 min: Phillips tries to release Robertson down the left with a raking diagonal. Steven Gerrard used to make those look easier than they are.
5 min: Traore barrels down the middle and feeds Semedo to his right. Semedo drops a shoulder to see off Robertson, and faces down Allison ... who blocks brilliantly. That’s made up for his earlier error. Traore may well have been flagged offside from the initial pass, but still. This is lively!
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4 min: This is the 100th league meeting between Wolves and Liverpool. Every single one has been in the top flight.
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3 min: Liverpool go straight up the other end and win a corner that comes to nothing. Early signs that both teams are in the mood to give this a right go.
2 min: An early fumble by Alisson, who goes to claim Traore’s right-wing cross but clatters into Semedo instead. A penalty? Nope, though much more force might have changed the referee’s mind. Semedo wasn’t getting to the ball anyway, Kabak in the business of clearing, but still. File under: seen them given.
Liverpool get the ball rolling ... but only after taking the knee. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
Before kick-off, Wolves captain Conor Coady lays a wreath in memory of club historian Graham Hughes. Fittingly, he places it in front of the stand that bears Hughes’ name.
The teams are out! Wolves are wearing ... we’ve already covered this ... while Liverpool take to the field in first-choice red. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
“Have Wolves ever had a kit that wasn’t gorgeous? Their badge and old gold are pretty much design-atrocity-resistant.” Our picture guru Paul Bellsham provides us with the exception that proves the rule. Po’ Bully!
Nuno Espirito Santo talks to Sky Sports. “We face a very good team full of talented players ... a fantastic manager ... champions of the Premier League ... so it will be very tough today ... all the teams have struggled this season ... we know that we can hurt them if we use our speed, our talent ... we must attack ... too bad Molineux is not full to give Diogo Jota a full standing ovation because he did a lot for us.”
Jurgen Klopp also. “Fabinho gives us a lot of things ... giving other players the opportunity to be slightly higher, slightly wider ... he’s a very important player, we would have played him in midfield more often if it was possible ... we have ten games to go, a lot of points, we have to go for them ... we have to fight for them ... let’s make sure it will happen tonight.”
Wolves will be sporting Feed Our Pack logos this evening, highlighting an initiative to help combat holiday hunger. Fans can purchase a virtual ticket to support the campaign: details can be found here on the official club website.
Wolves make one change to the XI that started the 0-0 draw at Aston Villa. Willy Boly takes the place of Leander Dendoncker.
Liverpool meanwhile looked a little bit more like their old selves in beating RB Leipzig last week. As a result, they name the same starting XI. Divock Origi is out with a muscle problem, while Roberto Firmino continues to rest a sore knee.
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The teams
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Rui Patricio, Boly, Coady, Saiss, Nelson Semedo, Neves, Joao Moutinho, Jonny, Pedro Neto, Traore, Willian Jose.
Subs: Hoever, Silva, Gibbs-White, Vitinha, Ruddy, Dendoncker, Kilman, Marques.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Kabak, Robertson, Thiago, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Jota, Mane.
Subs: Milner, Keita, Adrian, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Tsimikas, Shaqiri, Rhys Williams, Neco Williams.
Referee: Craig Pawson (South Yorkshire).
Preamble
This is a fixture that has twice secured a league championship for Liverpool. Albert Stubbins brushed Stan Cullis aside to score the winner in the final fixture of the 1946-47 season, as Liverpool pipped Wolves, Manchester United and Stoke City to the title. Then in 1975-76, Bob Paisley’s team left it late at Molineux, but three goals in the last 14 minutes secured a 3-1 victory that saw off QPR in the race for the old First Division.
There’s not quite so much riding on their visit to Molineux this evening. Having lost six of their last seven games, the best Liverpool can hope for this year is to scrape a top-four finish. Even that looks a tall order, although defeats for West Ham and Everton, plus Chelsea’s draw at Leeds, manes they could make up a bit of ground in the chase if they win tonight. Their recent record against Wolves suggests that’s far from a pipe dream: they’ve won their last eight league matches against Wanderers in a row, and their 4-0 annihilation of Nuno Espirito Santo’s side at Anfield was arguably their best performance this season.
But Wolves have reason to believe themselves. They’ve beaten Liverpool a couple of times recently in the FA Cup - in 2017 and 2019 - while their current form is miles better than their visitors: just one defeat in their last seven, and that a loss at all-conquering Manchester City, a 4-1 result distorting a game in which Wolves gave as good as they got. Also, while all pressure is on Liverpool, the world rubbernecking to see if Jurgen Klopp’s champions continue to falter, Wolves are in mid-table comfort, and can go about their business in relative peace.
All of which is a long-winded way of saying: this one looks nicely in the balance. Kick off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
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