Wolves fans were all in agreement that one of Manchester City’s penalties shouldn’t have stood in their 5-1 loss this evening.
Gary O’Neil took his Wolves side to the Etihad to take on Manchester City.
The Old Gold were aiming to become the first team ever to complete more than one league double over Pep Guardiola having beaten the champions 2-1 in September.
Sadly, O’Neil’s men were unable to recreate those heroics as Erling Haaland tore apart the visitors by scoring four goals before Julian Alvarez added a fifth.
Haaland got the ball rolling with a penalty inside 12 minutes however, there was some controversy surrounding the decision.
A cross came in from the right and Rayan Ait-Nouri had all eyes on the ball to clear it but instead caught an on-rushing Josko Gvardiol. The referee hesitated at first to point to the spot, however once he did, he left many supporters enraged.
Wolves fans react to Manchester City penalty decision
Man City were awarded two penalties tonight. The second decision was certainly correct as Nelson Semedo clipped Haaland down in the box.
The first one, meanwhile, was up for debate, as while there was contact, it was more of a coming together and there was zero malice in the challenge from Ait-Nouri.
Some will say the Algerian was clumsy but unsurprisingly most Wolves supporters disagreed with the decision when reacting via X.
One supporter said: “Never a pen and the ref only blows his whistle when the city players ask for it shameful.”
Another reacted: “It’s not a pen. Gvardiol catches him on the follow through. Ref has had two big decisions to make and got them both wrong. Another bad day for officiating with this and the Havertz decision earlier.”
A fourth said: “I am thinking two players run into each both trying to get the ball.” A fifth added: “He got his shot off. It was a coming together. Hard to see what goal scoring opportunity was prevented as the ball was over the bar as they clashed.”
Wolves looked bright in attack
Regardless of the two penalty decisions, Wolves still came up against a relentless Norwegian goal machine who was impossible to stop.
If the referee didn’t give them two spot kicks, the outcome of the match wouldn’t have changed, although the Wanderers did look bright in attack.
Instead of sitting back behind the ball, Wolves showed intent to press high and drive forward into City’s half. Forward Matheus Cunha often made some lung-bursting runs alongside Hwang Hee-Chan while the returning Jean-Ricner Bellegarde looked bright off the bench, sending the cross in for
Of course, Wolves were punished by the irrepressible Haaland, but they still created chances and looked threatening when did get an opportunity to break.
Sometimes you’ve got to accept when a team is just too overpowering, and on this occasion, Man City were just unstoppable.