Wolves 1 Leeds United 0 - Illan Meslier own-goal misery for Whites

Leeds won, but it proved a temporary reprieve in a far from illuminating season when both clubs were pitifully relegated.

Leeds and Wolves are now enjoying enlightened times again under Marcelo Bielsa and Nuno Espirto Santo.

The gap has also closed somewhat since United were handed a lesson in a 4-1 Championship drubbing on their last visit to this part of the Black Country in 2017 when the Premier League seemed in the distance for the visitors, but not the hosts.

Here, there was a cigarette paper between both sides for the most part as their position next to each other in the league table might have suspected to observers beforehand. The contest between two of the division’s stellar wingmen in Raphinha and Neto was one of several fascinating sub-plots on the night and it delivered in that regard.

Raphinha is a player who combines electric pace and livewire trickery with a free-kick delivery which is as deadly as it gets and could only have been honed by hours upon hours of painstaking practice..

Three times, his wand of a left foot picked out Liam Cooper in front of goal. But on three occasions, the defender was denied by Rui Patricio.

Quite how Leeds’s eye-catching tally of 19 set-piece goals was not augmented is a minor mystery.

On the other right-hand flank was Neto. Likened to a young Cristiano Ronaldo, Neto’s venomous early curler, which Meslier kept out with a one-handed save, showed what he is all about and his axis down the right with Nelson Semedo represented Wolves’ best first-half outlet.

On the other flank, Adama Traore was kept comfortably in check. That is until the game-breaking moment on 64 minutes.

It was on a Friday night almost three years ago that the express winger produced an unplayable performance to set up Patrick Bamford for a hat-trick in a 3-0 win for Middlesbrough against Leeds.

This time, Traore went solo in his sole moment of menace with his ferocious shot smashing against the woodwork before unluckily bouncing off the back of Illan Meslier into the net – with the strike credited as an own goal.

At fault for several Arsenal goals he may have been on Sunday, but this was rank bad luck as Leeds narrowly lost out by the barest of margins against Wolves for a second time this term.

Wanderers swapped places with them in the table in the process after securing back-to-back victories for the first time since October.

Leeds pushed at the death with ex-Wolves winger Helder Costa and Bamford going close, with the former missing a glorious opportunity when he fired straight at Patricio.

For Bamford, this was a quieter night in the Midlands in front of the watching Gareth Southgate.

He did produce one emphatic moment 12 minutes from time but an offside flag and VAR check thwarted any celebrations. This was not his evening unlike at Aston Villa and Leicester.

Leeds played their part in an absorbing spectacle, which did not disappoint. Unfortunately, they found themselves on the wrong side when a draw would have been fairer.

Some nice first-half passages of play were enough to keep a good side enthused into thinking it might be their night on the restart if their offensive players – Raphinha excepted – started to click. They didn’t in truth.

Leeds’s best first-half moments came when Cooper failed to direct a header either side of Patricio when left unmarked following a gem of a centre from Raphinha. It was a sign of things to come.

The classy winger also showed a sublime touch to set up Mateusz Klich and Wolves were fortunate when the midfielder’s cross-shot shuddered the base of the post and Pascal Struijk’s follow-up was blocked by Romain Saiss.

Neto neatly played in Semedo around the half-hour mark, but Meslier blocked before soon another on-message save at his near post.

It constituted no surprise that Neto had Wolves’ first decent attempt in the second period, firing over after Jack Harrison’s error before defender Conor Coady thwarted Raphinha after a 
wonderful centre from Luke Ayling.

The game was in the balance and a close-run thing like the reverse fixture.

A case of who would make the first gift-wrapped mistake or who would conjure a moment of brilliance.

The latter arrived from Traore, but there was an element of luck as well as Wolves took the lead for the first time in 14 league games and held onto it.

A disappointing scoreline for Leeds for sure, but how they have moved on since their previous visit here.

Wolves: Patrício; Dendoncker, Coady, Saïss; Semedo, Neves, Moutinho, Otto (Marcal 60 (Ait-Nouri 82); Neto, Da Silva; (Fabio Silva 87); Traoré. Substitutes unused: Hoever, Gibbs-White, Vitinha. Ruddy, Kilman, Otasowie.

Leeds United: Meslier; Ayling, Cooper, Struijk, Dallas; Raphinha, Klich (Alioski 81), Shackleton (Hernandez 66), Harrison (Costa 81), Roberts, Bamford. Substitutes unused: Casilla, Llorente, Davis, Gelhardt, Jenkins, Huggins.

Referee: D Coote (Notts).

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