Son Heung-min (Tottenham Hotspur) and Hwang Hee-chan (Wolverhampton Wanderers), who were on a hot scoring streak early in the season, were quiet in the ‘Korean Derby’ clash.
Tottenham Hotspur 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, on Nov. 11 at 9:30 p.m. ET.
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-heeled 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 game-winner seven minutes into stoppage time, slotting home with his right foot from the edge of 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 game was on Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan. Son is second in the EPL with eight goals in 11 games, and Hwang is sixth in the league with six goals in 11 games, and both have had excellent early-season scoring form.
In their pre-match highlights, the BBC mentioned Hwang as the only Wolverhampton player to have scored in all six of their opening home games, noting that “the South Korean has scored a goal or assist in each of his last five games, joining Alan Shearer of Blackburn in 1995-1996, Les Ferdinand of Newcastle and Thierry Henry in 2004-2005.” The BBC also noted Hwang’s tremendous form.
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 were a number of issues surrounding the match, the BBC only mentioned Hwang Hee-chan and Son Heung-min as individual players, indicating that they were key players in the match.
But as they say, ‘no food for the rumored feast’. Both Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan had zero shots in the first half of the match. Hwang Hee-chan was able to hold his own up front and often created contested shots, but Son Heung-min was unable to create anything of note.
Hwang had a golden opportunity to score in the second half, registering his first shot on goal, but he couldn’t convert. In the 10th minute of the second half, following a Wolverhampton corner on the right, Juan Gomes’ right-footed mid-range shot from just outside the Tottenham box beat Tottenham defender Ben Davies and fell to Hwang Hee-chan on the right side of the box. Onside and one-on-one with the keeper in a perfect scoring opportunity, Hwang’s right-footed shot deflected off the rebound and into the right side of the Tottenham goal. It was Wolverhampton’s best chance of the game so far, and Hwang had blown it.
In the 27th minute, on a Tottenham counter-attack, Son Heung-min’s one-touch pass from the right was met by a low alley-oop from Hojbjerg to the 토토 onrushing Johnson. However, Johnson’s quick-timed right-footed shot was deflected wide of the target as Wolverhampton goalkeeper Jose Sa was left unmarked.
After that, Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan were unable to create any goal-scoring chances. It was a relatively boring end to the Korean Derby, with both players falling short of expectations.