Watford 0-2 Wolves: Hee-Chan Hwang debut goal earns Bruno Lage first league win

Hee-Chan Hwang's debut goal helped earn Wolves their first points of the season as they beat a poor Watford side 2-0 at Vicarage Road.

Coming into the game without a point or a goal to their name, it looked likely to be another painful afternoon for Wolves' new manager Bruno Lage after Nelson Semedo fired wide when clean through with an hour gone.

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But a helping hand from Watford's Francisco Sierralta, who headed into his own net from a low cross, finally got them off the mark with 15 minutes to go, and substitute Hwang then doubled the lead from close range after Marcal had hit the post.

Wolves' victory ended Watford's club-record run of 10 straight league wins coming into the game, inflicting a third consecutive defeat on Xisco Munoz, and dropped them below Wolves, who jumped out of the bottom three.

Watford help Wolves finally end goalless start

Wolves have done everything but score in their opening three games and continued that trend in the opening 15 minutes at Vicarage Road, where their intensity throttled Watford without causing Daniel Bachmann's goal any real trouble.

A welcome moment of individual quality between Ismaila Sarr and Sissoko on the right 15 minutes in, before the latter tested Jose Sa from the edge of the box, livened up the hosts, who almost caused him further problems when Josh King was inches away from connecting with Sarr's low delivery.

Semedo fired at Bachmann from a tight angle in added time as Wolves spurned the opportunity of the half - although they would have likely preferred to see the chance fall to one of their front three instead.

It was same again when the ex-Barcelona defender was left unmarked a second time to reach Fernando Trincao's pinpoint threaded pass on the hour mark. This time he beat the goalkeeper but missed the far post too, as it began to look like another one of those days for Wolves.

Lage's side did not give up. With Watford posing little threat since the break they pressed on and finally found a breakthrough as Marcal's low cross was headed past Bachmann by a stooping Sierralta.

The Chilean was only cleared to play by FIFA on Friday night after defying Chile's international call-up - but his redemption would be short-lived as his own goal finally gave Wolves the belief they had lacked.

With seven minutes to go they turned that into a second goal. Semedo's low ball across the six-yard box simply needed tapping home at the back post, where Marcal somehow turned it onto the woodwork and away, before Hwang found some greater accuracy to beat William Troost-Ekong's despairing challenge from close range.

Watford continued to pose little threat in the final minutes as Wolves saw out a comfortable victory, to finally begin looking up on the back of a first win of the season and instead leave their hosts, now on a run of three straight losses, as the ones looking over their shoulders.

What the managers said...

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Watford boss Xisco Munoz: "The team was, for 60-65 minutes at a good level, but after the goal we were a little down. We need to be a bit better in both boxes.

"We need to create more. We can give better solutions and arrive better in the opposition box, and it's three games now without scoring."

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Wolves manager Bruno Lage: "It was a good game, a good performance from our side. The first 15 or 20 minutes it was our game, the way we played, found spaces, and created chances.

"The second half, with the changes we made at half-time, the game came to us - we continued to create chances, and it's a good result for us and a good result for our four games so far."

Man of the match - Adama Traore

The final product still isn't quite there from Wolves' wing-walking enigma, although pretty much everything else was at Vicarage Road.

He created two chances, took on more duels than any of his team-mates (17) and completed 10 dribbles before he was taken off late on.

Opta facts: Wolves end away day headache at Vicarage Road

• Wolves picked up their first away win in the Premier League since April (1-0 v Fulham), ending a run of four games without a win on the road (D1 L3) and having lost their last three coming into today.
• Watford have lost three of their first four games of the Premier League season (W1); their joint-most defeats at this stage of a top-flight campaign along with 2006-07 and 2019-20, suffering relegation in both those seasons.
• Since scoring three goals on the opening day against Aston Villa, Watford have failed to score in their last three Premier League games - their longest goalless run in the competition since December 2019 (also three).
• Wolves scored their first Premier League goal of the season through an own goal by Watford's Francisco Sierralta, with Bruno Lage's side having attempted 69 shots of their own before registering their first league goal of 2021-22.
• Watford's Francisco Sierralta became the first Chilean player to score an own goal in the Premier League.
• Hwang Hee-Chan became the eighth player to score on his Wolves Premier League debut, and first since Rayan Aït-Nouri in October 2020 (v Crystal Palace).

What's next?

Watford travel to Norwich in their next Premier League game next Saturday; kick-off at 3pm.

Wolves are back at Molineux earlier the same day, hosting Premier League newcomers Brentford; kick-off at 12.30pm.

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