Fulham 3 Wolves 2: Wolves left frustrated by more VAR decisions in five goal thriller
This was not a night which will do anything for Wolves’ sense of injustice at refereeing decisions.
Two debatable second half penalties awarded to Fulham, both of them scored by Willian, ultimately condemned Gary O’Neil’s team to a 3-2 defeat at Craven which halted the momentum generated by the fantastic finish at Fulham prior to the international break.
After Matheus Cunha had cancelled out Alex Iwobi’s opener, the hosts went back in front when Nelson Semedo was rather harshly judged to have fouled Tom Cairney.
A penalty of Wolves’ own, converted by Hwang Hee-chan, then seemed to have earned O’Neil’s men a share of the spoils only for controversy to rear its head again in stoppage time.
Harry Wilson tumbled when racing past Joao Gomes, video assistant Stuart Attwell advised referee Michael Salisbury to take a look and Willian beat Jose Sa again from the spot to earn the hosts a first win in five matches.
Neither decision was so egregious as the ones given against Wolves in matches with Newcastle and Sheffield United. But it will still add to the sense that when it comes to officiating decisions, they rather get the rough end of the stick. Moments before the second Fulham penalty decision, their substitute Carlos Vinicius avoided sanction after appearing to move his head toward Max Kilman. To add further insult to Wolves; injury, both Gomes and Mario Lemina picked up bookings which will see them miss Saturday’s trip to Arsenal.
O’Neil was missing Craig Dawson for this match and his solution was to hand Santiago Bueno just his second appearance since his £8.5million move from Girona and first in the Premier League.
The most notable Fulham team news, from visitors’ perspective, was the presence of Raul Jimenez in the starting XI and the former Molineux hero would have netted inside the first 40 seconds had he been able to connect with an Andreas Pereira cross which flashed in front of the Wolves goal.
Still, it did not take long for the hosts to break the deadlock with a goal which left plenty to be desired from a defensive perspective. No Wolves player tracked the run of Iwobi after he had laid the ball off to Antonee Robinson. Jean-Ricner Bellegarde then allowed Robinson to race into the box unhindered after exchanging passes with Willian, before crossing for Iwobi to tap home the simplest of finishes.
Things very nearly got worse within seconds. Sa denied Jimenez at the far post when the striker tried to squeeze a shot home from an acute angle. Wolves then left Cairney unmarked at the corner and an unsighted Sa did just enough to palm the effort away from goal.
The keeper could be seen yelling at his team-mates to wake up and gradually they did. From nothing, Lemina nearly conjured an equaliser when he cut out a pass in the middle of the field and sent Hwang racing away, the shot lifted over Bernd Leno but just too high, clattering off the top of the bar.
Then, after an injury to Rayan Ait-Nouri had forced Wolves into an early change, they were level. Semedo advanced down the right, Fulham retreated and Bellegarde made good on his earlier sloppiness by turning Robinson this way and that, before standing up a cross to the back post which an unmarked Cunha headed home.
Suddenly the game felt very different and with a little more fortune or clarity in the final third, Wolves might have led by the break.
Timothy Castagne was in the right place to deny Cunha a simple second and then produced more fine defending early in the second half to prevent Doherty from converting a Hwang cross.
The hosts, however, had rediscovered some rhythm and just before the hour mark went back in front as Wolves were again on the end of a controversial penalty decision.
Though this one was not as egregious as those against Newcastle and Sheffield United, it was highly debatable whether Semedo made enough contact with Cairney to send the Fulham man to the floor. The Wolves defender also seemed to get a portion of the ball. Yet after referee Salisbury had pointed to the spot, video assistant Attwell saw no reason to overturn the decision despite a lengthy check. Willian, who seemed to stop in his run-up, sent Sa the wrong way and Wolves had it all to do again.
The task would have become harder had Sa not denied Iwobi after a Jimenez flick sent him hareing through on goal.
It proved a crucial save when, with 15 minutes to go, Wolves got a penalty of their own. Sasa Kalajdzic, introduced off the bench, did enough to disrupt Calvin Bassey’s header and Hwang beat Ream to the ball before being barged over. After another long VAR check, the decision again stood and the South Korea international blasted his spot-kick down the middle for his eighth goal of the season.
It looked like a case of justice done but to Wolves’ cost, the controversy was not done yet.
Teams
Fulham (4-2-3-1): Leno; Castagne, Bassey, Ream, Robinson; Iwobi, Reed; Cairney, Pereira (Wilson 76), Willian; Jimenez (Vinicius 76) Subs not used: Rodák, Tete, Adarabioyo, Ballo-Touré, De Cordova-Reid, Lukic, Harris.
Wolves (3-5-2): Sa, Kilman, Bueno, Toti, Semedo, Bellegarde (Kalajdzic 62), Lemina, Gomes, Ait-Nouri (Doherty 19), Hwang, Cunha (Doyle 83) Subs not used: Traore, Silva, Bueno H, Otto, Sarabia, Bentley (gk).
