Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 West Ham United
Premier League, Molineux, Tuesday 1 April 2025, 7.45pm BST
Jørgen Strand Larsen’s deflected first-half goal condemned West Ham United to a 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday evening.
Despite having more goal attempts, far more possession and hitting the woodwork through the fit-again Niclas Füllkrug’s second-half header, Graham Potter’s Irons left Molineux with nothing to show for their efforts.
After ten minutes of nothing much, bar both teams passing the ball inside their own respective defensive thirds, West Ham emerged first.
James Ward-Prowse fired a 30-yard free-kick narrowly over. A minute later, Aaron Wan-Bissaka blocked Toti’s clearance, Jarrod Bowen ran onto the loose ball and crossed low and hard, but the delivery was marginally behind Evan Ferguson, whose scuffed shot was scrambled away by Matt Doherty.
From then on, Wolves looked the more composed and more likely scorers.
First, Toti forced Alphonse Areola into a plunging one-handed save with a powerful downward header from Rayan Aït-Nouri’s free-kick, then Emmanuel Agbadou curled a free-kick over from long range.
West Ham flickered again as Bowen collected Luis Guilherme’s pass and worked Jose Sá at the near post, but within two minutes Wolves were in front.
A loose clearance from Konstantinos Mavropanos fell to Strand Larsen and the Norwegian’s left-foot shot deflected off Kilman and past Areola.
The home side were now full of confidence, closing down space quickly, passing and moving accurately, and could have extended their lead before half-time.
João Gomes strode through the West Ham defence and found Strand Larsen. The scorer cut inside, poked the ball to Marshall Munetsi and the Zimbabwean rattled the crossbar with a well-struck right-footer.
As half-time approached, André intercepted a Mavropanos pass and fired over from 25 yards, then João Gomes saw a left-foot shot blocked by Aaron Cresswell’s back.
Potter had to change something, so he did. Three things in fact, as Cresswell, Guilherme and Ferguson made way for Carlos Soler, Edson Álvarez and the returning Füllkrug, back after a three-month injury absence. He also switched formation from five to three-at-the-back.
West Ham immediately looked more fluent in attack, but Wolves still had the next chance as Jean-Ricner Bellegarde curled past the angle.
With the Hammers bossing possession but struggling to create anything of note, Wolves sat in and played on the break. From one raid with 20 minutes to play, Strand Larsen screwed Doherty’s cross wide.
Potter made two further changes with 13 minutes remaining, introducing Emerson and Tomáš Souček. Within seconds, the former combined with Paquetá, whose outswinging cross was headed against the crossbar by Füllkrug. Emerson followed in but volleyed wide.
Then, with 90 seconds to play, Bowen blocked Toti’s clearance, Füllkrug played in Souček, but the Czech could only drive his shot into the side netting.
That was as close as the Irons went to levelling as Wolves secured a win that closes the gap to us to five points with eight games to play, despite Munetsi putting a gilt-edged chance wide in added-time.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sá, Doherty, Agbadou, Toti, Semedo ©, João Gomes, André (Sarabia 71), Aït-Nouri (Bueno 82), Bellegarde (Traoré 90), Munetsi, Strand Larsen
Subs not used: Johnstone (GK), Lima, Doyle, Djiga, Forbs, Hwang
Goal: Strand Larsen 21
Booked: André, Sá, João Gomes, Doherty
West Ham United: Areola, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Kilman, Cresswell (Soler HT), Scarles (Emerson 77), Ward-Prowse (Souček 77), Paquetá, Guilherme (Álvarez HT), Bowen ©, Ferguson (Füllkrug HT)
Subs not used: Fabiański (GK), Coufal, Todibo, Rodríguez
Booked: Mavropanos, Füllkrug
Referee: Tony Harrington
