Tottenham Hotspur’s Son Heung-min and Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Hwang Hee-chan went head-to-head in the first match of the season. The two players even had a “surprise meeting” with the referee in the first half.
Tottenham lost 1-2 away to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the 12th round of the 2023-2024 English Premier League (EPL) at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton, England at 9:30 p.m. ET on Nov. 11.
The loss drops Tottenham to 8 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses (26 points) in 12 games, leaving them in second place behind Manchester City, who have 9 wins and 2 draws (27 points) in 11 games.
Tottenham struck early to take the lead. In the third minute of the first half, Kuluczewski’s back-footed pass from the right was collected by Foro and he sent a low, quick right-footed cross into the box. Brennan Johnson finished with his left foot to give Spurs a 1-0 lead. But Wolverhampton substitute Pablo Sarabia equalized in the first minute of second-half stoppage time when he ran onto a Mateusz Cunha cross from the left inside the Tottenham box, collected it with his right foot and volleyed home with his left. Mario Lemina then scored the winner in the seventh minute of second-half stoppage time, slotting home with his right foot in the box after Sarabia’s penetrating pass from the right.
Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan both played the full game but failed to record an attacking point.
The focus of the match was on Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan. In its pre-match highlights, the BBC mentioned Hwang as the only Wolverhampton player to have scored in all six home games since the start of the season, noting that “he is in contention to become the fourth player to score in all six home games since the start of the season, joining Alan Shearer at Blackburn in 1995-1996, Les Ferdinand at Newcastle and Thierry Henry in 2004-2005.” The South Korean has scored a goal or assist in each of his last five games.
For Tottenham, the BBC only mentioned Son Heung-min as an individual player, noting that “in his last nine EPL games against Wolverhampton, Son has failed to score a goal“. It’s interesting that the BBC singles out Son for his strange goal drought against Wolverhampton. While there are a number of issues surrounding the match, the BBC only mentioned Hwang and Son as individual players, indicating that they were key players in the match.
So it was interesting to see if Son and Hwang would get into a fight during the match. Midway through the first half, the two players finally came face-to-face as they surrounded the referee.
Hwang tripped over Tottenham’s Johnson near the touchline on the bench side in the 31st minute of the first half and got into a nervous tussle with Johnson as he got up. The referee gave the two players a verbal caution.
At that point, Tottenham captain Son Heung-min came up behind the referee and overheard the conversation. As Hwang Hee-chan 안전놀이터 listened to the referee’s caution, Son Heung-min glanced over at Hwang Hee-chan.
In the midst of the nervousness between Hwang and Johnson, it was interesting to see Son Heung-min relate to both players.