Wolves 0 Manchester United 0
**********
Hello and welcome to our coverage of Wolves v Manchester United in the FA Cup third round.
The team news is in and United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has made a host of changes to his starting team. Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, Daniel James and Nemanja Matic are the only players who keep their place from the 2-0 defeat at Arsenal.
A risky move from Solskjaer?
Matt Doherty starts in a Wolves team that shows four changes from their Premier League defeat to Watford on Wednesday.
We’ll be back closer to kick-off, which is at 5.31pm at Molineux.
Just moments to kick-off now as the two teams walk out to a rather impressive light show. Wolves of course knocked United out of the cup in last year’s quarter-finals with a 2-1 win at Molineux.
Ireland manager Mick McCarthy is pitch-side doing some TV work for BT Sport, so Matt Doherty will be hoping to impress. Former United boss Alex Ferguson is also in attendance.
1min
And we’re up and running at Molineux. Wolves in their traditional gold shirts and black shorts, as United opt for a change kit of black shirt and white shorts, complete with luminous orange numbers on the back. The home crowd in good voice, and will fancy their chances of a win.
5mins
Early chance for United as they win a free kick in a decent position to whip in a cross from the right, but Pereira just whacks the ball into the one-man wall. Really wasteful from the Brazilian.
7mins
Mason Greenwood gets his first sight of goal but he slices his effort high and wide from a difficult position following some good work by Juan Mata. It’s been an energetic start from both sides.
CHANCE!
12mins
Three corners in a row for Wolves. The first is put behind by Lindelof, the second sees a Matt Doherty effort produce a really good save by Romero, and the third comes to nothing.
Wolves happy to run at United in the early stages here, with Adama Traore looking particularly dangerous.
The replays show just how good that Romero save from Doherty was. The United back-up keeper does really well to get his right hand up to stop Doherty’s point-blank shot.
23mins
0-0
The early Wolves pressure has died down a little bit, but United are yet to get going at Molineux against a well organised Wolves defence. Ashley Young’s attempts to launch a ball over the top but it runs harmlessly wide, prompting boos from the home crowd, before Greenwood sees an ambitious effort deflected into Ruddy arms.
26mins
0-0
United string a few decent passes together, but the move ends with Pereira firing a shot well over the bar from distance. Better from United, but no end product again.
28mins
0-0
Chong does well down the right to cut back inside and pick out Daniel James on the edge of the box, but it’s another poor effort as the ball sails harmlessly wide.
Meanwhile Harry Maguire isn’t moving comfortably following a heavy tackle on Adama Traore. He might not last too much longer.
PENALTY SHOUT
31mins
0-0
VAR have a look as Williams and Leander Dendoncker come together in the box. It looked like Dendoncker clipped Williams and prevented him getting the ball.
VAR have a quick look but the decision is no penalty. Cue angry chants directed at VAR from the traveling United supporters. Still goalless.
35mins
0-0
Ruben Neves, who scored a cracking goal in the 1-1 draw here earlier in the season, becomes the latest player to fire a shot way off target from distance.
Happily for Solskaer, it looks like Maguire has shaken off that earlier knock and will be able to continue, while James has pulled a shot well wide from just inside the box.
HALF-TIME
0-0
A distinct lack of quality in that opening half, with Romero’s superb save to deny Wolves’ Matt Doherty the biggest moment of the game so far.
Adama Traore has failed to make much of an impact for the hosts after a bright start, while United’s forwards just don’t seem to be operating on the same wavelength at all.
Both sides will be looking to lift things for the second half.
46mins
We’re back underway at Molineux.
One change at half-time, as Raul Jiménez replaces Benny Ashley-Seal for Wolves.
51mins
Romero has gone down and seems to be clutching his hamstring, and after a quick chat with the United physios he gives the bench the thumbs up and is good to continue, and is quickly called into action with a decent low save from Neto.
There’s no David de Gea on the bench today, so if Romero does need to come off he’ll be replaced by third choice keeper Lee Grant.
55mins
A long break in play as Neves receives attention for a head injury, but he’s fine to continue.
58mins
A clumsy tackle from Saiss on Chong hands United a free-kick in a good position. Mata and Pereira both stand over the ball, Mata hits it towards the far corner and leaves Ruddy stranded, but the ball sails narrowly wide.
60mins
A mix-up at the back as Maguire plays the ball back to Romero, who chips it out for a corner instead of just clearing his lines. Wolves fail to produce anything from the set-piece, as Solskjaer sends Marcus Rashford and Fred out to warm-up.
CHANCE!
64mins
Traore does well to work some space for himself and whip in a cross on the right, it’s flicked on by the head of Matt Doherty and falls to Vinagre, but an awkward bounce sees his volley fly harmlessly wide. A bit of a let off for United.
CHANCE!
70mins
Solskjaer introduces Rashford and Fred for James and Mata. Within seconds Greenwood plays in Rashford, his low effort is blocked by Coady and scoops up into the air before bouncing off the Wolves crossbar. That was United’s best chance of the game so far.
Wolves respond by sending in Joao Moutinho to bolster up the midfield.
74mins
Yellow card for Max Kilman for a poorly-timed tackle on Chong which sends the young United player flying through the air.
He looks in a lot of pain, but is able to continue.
The free kick is sent deep to the far post but the ball crosses the line for a goal-kick as Matic tries to keep it alive.
GOAL DISALLOWED!
76mins
Matt Doherty has the ball in the net, but it won’t count as his header came off his own arm before beating Romero in the United goal. It wasn’t intentional, but a good spot by the referee and there’s no complaints from Doherty.
Solskjaer will be worried by the amount of space Doherty found himself in. That was another big let off for United.
79mins
Traore gets two crosses in in quick succession down the right but United manage to clear the danger. All the momentum is with the home side at the moment. United need to try get Rashford more involved.
81mins
Jimenez crashes a shot off the post from a tight angle. United are struggling defensively on the left now, and Traore is giving Williams a difficult time.
84mins
A good quick counter-attack by United is started by Williams, but the move ends with a great tackle by Ruben Williams to nick the ball away from Rashford in the box after a heavy pass from Pereira.
89mins
It’s all Wolves as we enter the last couple of minutes. Will we see a late winner? There should be a decent amount of added time given the couple of injury stoppages.
90mins
Six minutes added time, plenty of time for someone to go and win this game.
93mins
Traore beats Williams again and fires in a low shot/cross but it’s cleared for a throw in. United hanging on.
95mins
Pereira sends in a free kick from near the half-way line. Maguire wins the header to send the ball back across the box, and despite having space and time Dalot skews a shot wide under little pressure. Another wasted opportunity.
95mins
A low drive from Dalot deflects off Greenwood and goes out for a Wolves goal-kick.
FULL-TIME
It ends 0-0 at Molineux.
So no magic of the cup in Wolverhampton today, and the two teams will have to meet again at Old Trafford.
Wolves were far from their best but that was another poor performance from a United side that failed to register a single shot on target in 96 minutes.
Thanks for joining us this evening, we’ll have a full report and reaction up shortly.
Not a bad weekend for Irish sport!
Not a bad w/e !! Been a fantastic Ireland 6 Nations champions, Liverpool beating Man U. And then cricketers winning whoooooHoooo
Liverpool and Man Utd are Irish?
And Dublin lost and Meath won in the football.
Ireland never lost a game on St.Patrick day.. What a win !!
Zimbabwe were still the seeded team in the group so it’s a great start to the tournament. Should put Holland and UAE away now to get through to the next stage!
Should never have come down to tje final ball but what a great start. Thrilling cricket
We love winning Cricket matches on Patrick’s Day. Always drama vs Zimbabwe. Remember last ball game in 2007 for a tie.
Ger , I backed them in Cheltenham that year.Corals said I was the only one to have a bet on them so they gave me the 6/4 for the tie
Those previous performances were in the 50-over version of the game. It’s quite different from T20, which is just all-out attack.
And then the article changes and my comment made no sense…
I won snakes and ladders this morning
I won a game of tidlywinks
…and we’re proud of both of you too.
Matt, that means so much to me!
Cricket … Rugby …… We have finally become the Europeans we were meant to be!!!!!!!
Not so much of a “surprise”. After all, Ireland are ranked ahead of Zimbabwe in T20 cricket.
It was a surprise to the 4 million of us who didn’t know until now!
This is certainly Ireland’s Sporting Weekend…well done…
The bandwagon will be departing shortly from platform 5. Could anyone with minimal knowledge of cricket, a large leprechaun hat, and a confused sense of patriotism please make their way immediately to platform 5. Thank you.
Did u enjoy the rugby?
Last bus to Bah-humbug leaves BusAras at 3pm – be on it.
Jesus,I hope I’m not sitting beside you. Anyone want to swap seats?
Silent,did Ireland score many touchdowns in the cricket today versus the African Tigers?
Does the journal have access to a murray kinsella of the cricket world who can do some explainer pieces on the different formats of cricket and what everything means? Would love to get excited about what the lads are doing but the vasy majority of the article went completely over my head! !!
Hi Barry,
An explainer of sorts went up on the site this morning. Here’s a link to it: http://jrnl.ie/1366631
Well done, Ireland. Great way to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day!
There was a few minutes there where I thought we were once again going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, hope we learn from this and make it more difficult to lose wickets.
Great result can push on and take the UAE and the Dutch. The dutch would usually quite strong. But I wonder how the controversy is effecting their squad. If we get to the super 10s I think we are in the tougher group, Aussies, Indies, India, Pakistan. I think we will struggle to get a win there, but the indies are there for the taking with a bit of luck.
If we can get the two more wins and top the group we will go through to the Super 10′s in Group 1 with the following teams and the following fixtures
Group 1
March 24th v Sri Lanka – Chittagong 1.30pm Irish Time
March 27th v South Africa – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
March 29th v New Zealand – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
March 31st v England – Chittagong 9.30am Irish Time
http://www.cricketireland.ie/news/article/icc-world-twenty20-preview-by-ger-siggins
#COYBIG