10 May 2025
Wolves 0 Brighton 2
Wolves welcomed Brighton to Molineux with the hosts having won their last three matches at home. It was good enough to see Vitor Pereira named the manager of the month as a result. The fans were just hoping the accolade did not lead to the curse which has seen so many teams drop off after the scooping the prize this campaign.
Fabian Hurzeler’s side desperately needed a win if they were going to keep their feint hopes of European football alive however. It has been a strange end to the season in the race for those top eight places, with so many teams dropping points at a pivotal point of the campaign. There was an air of confidence from the home fans, something that had been lacking for some time.
Ait-Nouri was hacked down by Lamptey out wide to give the hosts chance to get a dangerous delivery into the penalty area. It was just that as the clipped pass picked out the run of Guedes. He opted for a first-time effort that went over the bar by the narrowest of margins. That said, he really should have been scoring from that position.
The hosts continued to pepper the Brighton penalty area with a series of crosses. They created some half-chances for Wolves but struggled to capitalise. Probably the pick of the bunch was when Toti headed over at the back post. It was one-way traffic at this point with The Seagulls struggling to get out of their own half.
However, they were almost gifted a goal when Jose Sa came a long way out of his box to try and clear the ball. He miskicked it straight to O’Reilly. With the keeper well out of his goal, the Brighton midfielder decided not to shoot and to work it forward to Minteh. The winger could not sort his feet out and was easily dispossessed by the hosts.
The travelling fans did not have to wait much longer for something to celebrate, or so they thought. A cross into the box was met on the half-volley by Welbeck and ended up in the far corner of the goal. However, VAR was to come to the rescue of Wolves as it was decided that Minteh was in an offside position and made a definite attempt to play the ball which may have impacted the keeper.
Wolves’ defending was nothing short of dreadful in this first-half. As a short goal kick was played to Cunha just outside the box, the Brazilian was dispossessed. As he tried to redeem himself for his error, he chopped down the Brighton man in the box. There was no hesitation from the referee, who pointed to the spot and issued a yellow card for the challenge.
Welbeck stepped up to take it and stroked it past Jose Sa to give his side the lead. It meant that the striker had achieved ten Premier League goals in a season, for the first time in his career. With a stat like that, you wondered whether the Brighton man was stealing a career calling himself a striker. That should be something that is happening regularly.
After the break, whatever Vitor Pereira said to his team seemed to have some effect. Wolves looked to put the visitors under pressure in their bid to find an equaliser. Some good link-up play between Ait-Nouri and Cunha saw the Brazilian get a shot away towards the far corner as his feet seemed to go from underneath him. Verbruggen reacted well to get down and put it behind for a corner.
The Seagulls were living life on the edge for most of the second-half. A sublime long pass from Sarabia picked out Ait-Nouri out wide. His control took him past the defender as he looked to cross to pick out an unmarked Strand Larsen in the middle. Van Hecke got a touch to it and Verbruggen made a good save to beat it away from goal to deny the hosts.
Pereira’s side continued to miss gilt-edged chances. Bellegarde was the next to fire over when he should have been hitting the target at the very least. The visitors got forward on the counter and it was worked into Gruda in the box. As Jose Sa looked to close him down, he lifted it over the keeper to get his first-ever goal in a Brighton shirt.
It was a sublime finish from the German and more importantly, sealed an important win for The Seagulls. They were well and truly in the race for Europe as a result of these three points. Vitor Pereira will need to be concerned with his sides defending, this is why they embroiled in a relegation fight for the majority of this campaign.
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