Wolves 0 Crystal Palace 2 - Report

The hosts failed to retain possession or create any meaningful chances as numerous individual errors handed Palace the game on a silver platter.

First, Jean-Philippe Mateta bundled home a soft opening goal before Max Kilman scythed down Jeffrey Schlupp in the box for a stonewall penalty.

Wilfried Zaha stepped up and smashed it home to hand Palace a deserved 2-0 lead, which they took into the break.

Wolves marginally improved in the second half but still struggled to break down a stubborn Palace defence.

As a result, they fell to a very poor defeat in front of frustrated home supporters.

Bruno Lage made three changes to his side following the loss to West Ham and stuck with the 3-4-3 formation.

Pedro Neto made his first start in 11 months after recovering from his fractured patella injury, while Joao Moutinho and Daniel Podence were also recalled.

Leander Dendoncker, Francisco Trincao and Fabio Silva all dropped to the bench, while striker Raul Jimenez was surprisingly benched for the second game in a row.

Young winger Chiquinho also came into the squad and joined the substitutes, replacing Luke Cundle.

For defender Romain Saiss, the fixture marked his 200th appearance in a Wolves shirt.

Patrick Vieira also made three changes to his side from their last Premier League game, and switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Vicente Guaita, Cheikhou Kouyate and Mateta all came in, while Jack Butland and Luka Milivojevic dropped to the bench. James McArthur was not involved in the squad.

There was a minute of applause ahead of kick-off as both teams and both sets of fans showed their support for Ukraine.

It was a fairly clumsy start from Wolves in the opening five minutes as they regularly gave the ball away and allowed Palace to come forward.

Mateta almost opening the scoring, too, when he met a corner from five yards but his poke with his knee was straight at Jose Sa.

Once Wolves did get the ball down they often found space out wide, with Fernando Marcal hugging the left touchline.

But those moments were too fleeting for Wolves in the opening 15 minutes as they struggled for sustained possession.

Then, the inevitable opening goal from Palace came. Zaha was found down the right and he was allowed to cross low for Mateta who somehow got ahead of Kilman and Sa, looped it over them with a touch of good fortune, and then tapped home on the line.

From Wolves’ point of view it was a very poor goal to concede. Zaha got the better of Saiss too easily before Mateta was allowed to squeeze home a goal, when Wolves should have dealt with it.

After 25 minutes Ki-Jana Hoever was forced to come off with a suspected hamstring injury, as Jonny Castro Otto replaced him.

Wolves were all over the place defensively as Zaha continued to cause problems on the right as he, too easily, got beyond Jonny and worked his way into the box.

Eventually, another burst into the box from Schlupp saw Kilman bring him down for a clear penalty. Zaha dispatched it to give Palace a deserved 2-0 lead and leave the Wolves fans furious.

The disjointed display continued through the first half as Kilman once again gave the ball away to Mateta. He fed Conor Gallagher who curled a shot from distance, that Sa was forced into saving.

Sa came to the rescue again when he tipped over a Michael Olise shot. Wolves sat back off him too much and allowed him to dance into the box.

The half-time whistle came with some relief for Wolves, who could have easily been 3-0 or 4-0 down. An exceptionally poor display left them scratching their heads after they were outplayed in every department.

After a slight delay due to a problem with the officials’ communication equipment, the second half finally got underway.

In the opening minutes Wolves had a slightly improved tempo, as the home crowd cheered them on, but unfortunately, they had a similar lack of bite going forward.

In one move Palace opened them up again and Gallagher’s near post shot was collected by Sa.

Another mistake from Kilman saw Zaha racing through and Sa made a huge save to tip his effort onto the crossbar. Zaha was then adjudged to be offside by the linesman, but replays showed he may have been level.

Wolves were leaving so may gaps in defence and Zaha then looked to play Mateta through, but Sa did well to come off his line and beat the striker to the ball.

The hosts did create a chance when Hwang Hee-chan was played through. He had to shoot first time but instead delayed it and then attempted to cross, losing the opportunity.

After 63 minutes Neto’s afternoon came to an end on his first start since April last year. Jimenez replaced him.

Moments later, a scramble on the edge of the box almost saw opportunities for both Podence and Ruben Neves, but Wolves could not pull the trigger.

Chiquinho was thrown on in the 79th minute, in place of Kilman, as Wolves changed to a 4-4-2 formation in one last throw of the dice.

The young winger almost scored minutes later when Podence found him in the box and with only Guaita to beat, he attempted to chip it over the goalkeeper, who made a good save.

Neves then curled an effort inches wide of the post but from the edge of the box, as Wolves turned up the heat in the 85th minute.

With Wolves desperate for a way back into the game, Guaita was booked for time wasting in the 88th minute.

With four minutes of added time on the clock and the game dying out, Neves had a strong long-range effort palmed away by Guaita.

But that was the last major action of the game as Wolves fell to their third consecutive league defeat.

The result leaves them falling further behind in their pursuit of European football as they are now relying on results elsewhere to make up the ground, with 11 games to go.

Wolves: Sa, Kilman (Chiquinho, 79), Coady, Saiss, Hoever (Jonny, 25), Neves, Moutinho, Marcal, Neto (Jimenez, 63), Hwang, Podence.

Subs not used: Ruddy, Boly, Ait-Nouri, Dendoncker, Trincao, Silva.

Crystal Palace: Guaita, Clyne, Guehi, Andersen, Mitchell, Kouyate (Milivojevic, 69), Gallagher, Schlupp, Olise (Hughes, 82), Zaha, Mateta (Benteke, 69).

Subs not used: Butland, Kelly, Riedewald, Eze, Ayew, Edouard.