Jimenez goal secures Wolves win over struggling Burnley

A fine Wolves display secured three point for the midlands club at Molineux over a Burnley side that looked short of ideas and posed no real threat to Nuno's men.

Mexican striker Raul Jimenez scored a well-taken goal to win the match for his team, who should have scored more in a game where the score did not reflect their domimance.

In fact Jimenez had already missed a gilt-edged chance to put his team in front, as well as seeing Joe Hart save brilliantly from his goal-bound header, but the summer signing from Benfica was not to be denied and got his goal in the 61st minute

The match started slowly with both teams struggling to carve out chances in the opening minutes. However in the 30th minute the game began to turn towards Wolves. Hart denied Jimenez with a brilliant save, as did Tarkowski with a goal line clearance from the follow-up.

In the same passage of play the impressive Jonny Castro Otto also saw an effort cleared off the line by Tarkowski with Burnley all of a sudden hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Willy Boly was the next player to threaten Hart's goal, deftly controlling a clearance before firing a volley narrowly over the bar.

Although Burnley made it through to half-time with their clean sheet in tact there was only one team threatening to make the breakthrough.

It looked for all the world that it would come in the 47th minute. Phil Bardsley's back pass was short and sent Diogo Jota sprinting through on goal. Bardsley did all he could to atone for his error and put pressure on the Portuguese forward. Although Jota managed to find Jimenez with a pass across goal, he sold the striker slightly short. However there's no denying that he really should have scored, with the goal at his mercy his shot went well over the crossbar. 

However this did not deter the midlands side and their dominance continued. Ruben Neves started to pull the strings in midfield and saw a long-range shot saved by Hart. 

 

September 16, 2018

The breakthrough finally came with just over an hour on the clock. A neat exchange with Helder Costa freed Matt Doherty on the right-hand side and the wing back did well to pick out Jimenez in the box. He did brilliantly to direct a low curling shot into the far corner to give Wolves the lead and now it looked like just a question of how many they would get. 

Somehow they didn't manage to add to their tally. Leo Bonatini, who came on for the goalscorer Jimenez, was guilty of missing two very presentable chances after twice being picked out by Adama Traore, who added even more threat for Wolves, after being brought on in the 66th minute.

Although Burnley looked better after Matej Vydra was brought onto the pitch, they didn't create any chances of note. Jack Cork could have secured an undeserved equaliser for Sean Dyche's men when Vydra's strong effort across goal almost fell for the once capped England midfielder but he couldn't make contact. 

In the end Wolves were by far the superior team, they registered 30 shots on goal in a dominant performance, the only negative being they should have scored far more.