Boubacar Traore scored a stunner to help Wolves produce one of the narrow football results of the weekend in the Carabao Cup. Five minutes before the end, the replacement scored to defeat a much-changed Leeds team and give the home team a 1-0 triumph. It ended a dull game that seemed destined for penalties while also providing new Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui and his coaches with food for thought. Before attending Saturday’s visit from Arsenal and taking over in a formal capacity on Monday, Lopetegui is expected at the club’s Compton training facility on Friday. The lieutenants of the former Spain manager were present at Molineux and had already made a brief introduction to the team. They would have been both concerned and inspired early on.
Wolves survived the visitors’ attempt to overwhelm them and eventually regained control. Ruben Neves curled a free kick over, and Adama Traore fired across the goalmouth. However, after that, the intensity of the game waned as neither team could establish a clear edge, and it shouted out for some superior play. A subdued Molineux needed to be patient since it was too scruffy to maintain any kind of momentum. Joel Robles comfortably denied Max Kilman shortly after the restart, and he was even better when he turned aside Connor Ronan’s improvised attempt.
That has been Wolves’ issue the entire year. They have eight goals, which puts them in second-bottom of the Premier League, and as the game dragged into the closing 10 minutes, the hosts’ ideas appeared to have run out. Leeds’ Harrison missed the mark, but with five seconds left, Boubacar Traore scored an incredible last-second victory. Daniel Podence found the substitute to score with a beautiful strike from the edge of the box after Nathan Collins won the ball on the right and feed him.
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