72’ – Hwang again, and makes it four this time with an excellent finish that Pickford cannot do anything about, but the Blues are saved by the offside flag, whew.
71’ – Wolves counter and Cunha with a delightful diagonal to find Hwang in space, and his shot is headed into the far corner but a brilliant save from Pickford keeps it just three-nil, wow.
68’ – Bar. Gomes and Coleman combine, DCL lays it off for McNeil whose fiery shot with the outside of his foot swerves and comes back off the angle with the goalie well beaten. It’s just that kind of day.
64’ – Changes now, when the horse has not only bolted the stable but are clear of county lines as well. Seamus Coleman on for the utterly pathetic Patterson, and Andre Gomes on too for Keane as the Blues go back to their usual 4-5-1 formation.
60’ – Comedy of errors continues. Keane and Tarky run into each other and Hwang gets away, dummies and goes for the near post, Pickford gets a hand onto it and off the post for a corner.
Corner is cleared, but not completely and Wolves make it 3-0. Cunha’s speculative cross is met with a tentative touch from Dawson that wrong-foots Pickford. Just desserts that for the Blues who have been utterly awful. Myko played the defender on side trying to cover a run that never was.
53’ – Brilliant run and cross, and an emphatic finish, and the Blues are down 2-0 now. Hwang beats Keane and runs away down the Everton left this time, and his cutback is met by Cunha with Tarky and Patterson chasing shadows, no chance for Pickford and this game seems gone.
52’ – Two Everton blocks now after yet another attack down their right by Wolves. The hosts have looked more incisive with the ball all day.
50’ – A couple of cracks at goal and both blocked! Branthwaite and Tarky both saw shots charged down from inside the box after a freekick was played back in. The Blues have started with more hunger here.
48’ – Semedo almost embarrasses Pickford there. His searching cross was over Pickford and just past the back post, with the England #1 a bit clueless about his positioning there.
46’ – Second half underway, and right away Everton start with more intent. DCL gets McNeil into a shooting spot but he has his pocket picked easily. Sigh.
Halftime Thoughts – Everton have just not been themselves today, bearing none of the hallmarks of the side that we’d gotten used to watching over the last month or so. Really don’t see a path back into this game for Dyche’s boys without a change or two.
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45+4’ – Boiling over a bit in the middle. DCL and Dawson have a coming together in the middle, and then Doyle and McNeil getting into a grappling battle that sees them both booked.
There’s the halftime whistle, Wolves lead 1-0.
45+3’ – Myko wins a corner on the left. Garner to take, back across goal from Tarky, but no one can make decisive contact and it’s eventually cleared.
45+2’ – Brilliant through ball from Onana for DCL and once again the finish is wanting in quality. He looked to be offside anyway, but the striker is just woeful right now.
45’ – Four minutes to be added on.
Hwang had just beaten Keane to a long ball (haha, I know, funny funny) but the bounce and wind helps the ball get to Pickford to clear it, whew.
41’ – Three or four times now the Blues have had 50/50 decisions for fouls and throw-ins going against them, and now Hwang wins a freekick near the corner flag off Tarky. Young referee Thomas Bramall seems to be bowing to home pressures.
38’ – Semedo had raked a boot down Onana’s ankle a few minutes ago, and now the midfielder is down again. Is this an opportunity for Dyche to make a formation change as well, because ‘this’ is not working. Andre Gomes warming up, but Onana stays on for now.
36’ – Everton that. Two minute sequence of possession where for the bulk of it the back three passed the ball between themselves, and when they finally had a chance to cross, McNeil’s effort was easily cleared and Wolves on the attack again.
30’ – Another chance missed and the Blues are lucky to not be further behind. Semedo’s cross was perfect and Sarabia couldn’t make contact from point blank range.
Everton have been pretty poor overall, can’t say a single grey shirt is looking like they are here to play.
27’ – DCL chance, and just wide! McNeil plays him into the right channel, the striker chooses to place it past Sa instead of lobbing the goalie and it bobbles clear of the far post. Been 11 games since he’s last scored, and it shows.
24’ – Wolves corner. Tarkowski puts it over for another one. Now Tarky is more effective with his clearance, but Wolves put it right back into the box and score. Dawson gets a foot on the low cross, Pickford saves, Tarky and Patto cannot clear the ball from a yard or two out and Kilman bundles it home, 1-0 Wolves, and deservedly so you’d argue.
22’ – Now DCL and Onana combine, then Harrison and Patterson combine, but cannot get a cross into the box where they had numbers.
Patterson booked taking down Joao Gomes to stop a counter attack. The Scotsman has been decidedly average today.
20’ – DCL sets up McNeil for a shot from outside the box, attempt is poor however and well over.
19’ – Semedo overhits the ball and then tries to win a foul going down easily, ref is not interested and Mykolenko laughs off his weak attempt.
Wolves are swarming to the ball, especially in midfield, and that is the Blues undoing.
17’ – Wolves movement and passing is causing Everton quite a bit of grief in their own half. They’re going to have to hold on to the ball with more intent to cause their hosts issues.
McNeil does brilliantly in the middle but then his final ball to DCL is poor. We’ve seen that before.
14’ – Cunha snapshot from about thirty yards out, tries to curl it into the post with a low shot but Pickford looks to have it covered.
11’ – Everton are getting more possession than they usually do, and as a result struggling to get any real penetration.
7’ – Everton survive! Wolves counter at speed and with numbers, they even had a three-on-one at one point but keep looking for the perfect shooting chance and waste it. Onana used his lanky legs to make up ground and then make a perfectly-timed challenge to keep the game scoreless.
3’- Busy start here. Onana has a chance to lay off a searching pass and makes a hash of it.
Wolves on the attack right away with Hwang coming across behind the backline, passes up one chance to shoot to cross into the box, Branthwaite clears.
1’ – Rainy and windy at Molineux as Everton get us started.
Everton
Sean Dyche has gone with a back three to match the hosts, with Andre Gomes dropped, and Dominic Calvert-Lewin returning upfront.
Wolves
Everton will soon complete a grueling and often trying 2023, but there is another 90 minutes or so to go before that happens. They travel to Wolverhampton to take on the Wolves in a Premier League game that both sides want three points from – for the Blues it could mark another step or two taken towards eventual safety from relegation while for Wolves it could put the hosts in the thick of the race for a hotly contested and quite unlikely European berth.
Under Gary O’Neil Wolves have not only staved off early fears of relegation but have gone on to some stability and enter this fixture having demolished Brentford 4-1 and have picked up ten of the last fifteen points on offer.
Competition: Premier League Matchweek 20
Date and start time: Saturday, December 30th at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m ET / 3:00 p.m. BST
Stadium: Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton, England, United Kingdom
Capacity: 32,050
Weather: 52°F/11°C, wind & rain, 45% chance of precipitation, 19 mph winds
TV: USA Network – United States; N/A – United Kingdom; Fubo – Canada, beIN Sports Premium 2, SuperSport Premier League ROA, SuperSport MaXimo 3, Star Sports Select 2
Radio: evertontv
Live stream: Fubo, nbcsports.com, ESPN Play Sur, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, DStv Now, RUSH, Hotstar VIP, JioTV
Gamethread: The live blog will commence an hour before kickoff with the lineup announcements.
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Information from LiveSoccerTV.com
The Toffees dominated the game against Wolves in the previous match-up at Goodison Park, but early on in the season the Blues simply could not get anything right in front of goal and slipped to a defeat to a late winner. The last time Everton traveled to Molineux was when they were in the thick of a relegation battle last May, and after trailing for most of the game, got a deserved and hard-fought equalizer from the totemic Yerry Mina to salvage a point that they eventually needed to stay in the Premier League.
