Wolves 2-3 Brighton: Player ratings as Gross wins it late for Seagulls
Brighton edged a five-goal thriller against Wolves to make it a second consecutive win for the Seagulls after thrashing Chelsea last weekend.
There were four goals and a red card in a dramatic first half at Molineux, with Adam Lallana and Kaoru Mitoma scoring either side of Wolves strikes from Goncalo Guedes and Ruben Neves, before Pascal Gross won it late on for the visitors.
After a couple of wayward earlier sighters from Brighton, only 10 minutes were on the clock when Lallana opened the scoring from the middle of the penalty area after being played in by the in-form Leandro Trossard.
But that lead didn’t last long as Guedes fired Wolves back level almost immediately. The winger latched onto an eye of the needle pass from Boubacar Traore to finish from the corner of the six-yard box.
Brighton remained in the ascendancy, yet it was the home side who scored next to take the lead. In an exchange that lasted a few minutes, Daniel Podence appealed for a handball against Lewis Dunk. VAR first confirmed Podence was onside, before then advising referee Graham Scott to have another look. Penalty to Wolves, which was slotted away by Ruben Neves.
Having already scored once, Lallana then turned provider to Mitoma, digging out a cross for the Japan international to nod in from close-range.
Wolves had to play the entire second half with 10 players when Nelson Semedo was caught the wrong side of Mitoma and clumsily brought down the Brighton winger.
Jose Sa had to make a flying save to make up for his own mistake to prevent Solly March giving Brighton an early second half lead, while Wolves substitute Jonny was at risk of giving away a penalty when he upended Pervis Estupinan.
Brighton were dominating the ball and eventually had their winner in the closing stages of the game. Mitoma was again involved and the move finished with Gross sliding to slash the ball high into the net beyond the reach of Sa.
Wolves player ratings
GK: Jose Sa (6); RB: Nelson Semedo (5), CB: Nathan Collins (6), CB: Max Kilman (6), LB: Hugo Bueno (6); CM: Boubacar Traore (7), CM: Ruben Neves (8), CM: Joao Moutinho (6); RW: Goncalo Guedes (8), ST: Hwang Hee-chan (6), LW: Daniel Podence (6)
SUBS: Jonny (6), Adama Traore (6), Rayan Ait-Nouri (6), Connor Ronan (n/a)
Brighton player ratings
GK: Robert Sanchez (7); RB: Pascal Gross (8), CB: Adam Webster (7), CB: Lewis Dunk (7), LB: Pervis Estupinan (7); CM: Alexis Mac Allister (8), CM: Moises Caicedo (8); RM: Solly March (8), AM: Adam Lallana (8), LM: Kaoru Mitoma (9); ST: Leandro Trossard (8)
SUBS: Danny Welbeck (6), Deniz Undav (n/a), Billy Gilmour (n/a), Joel Veltman (n/a)
Player of the match - Kaoru Mitoma
*Ratings from Fotmob