West Ham recover to win at Wolves but suffer Bowen injury blow
James Ward-Prowse scored directly from a corner as West Ham came from behind to win 2-1 at Wolves but only after Jarrod Bowen was injured, days before their Europa League clash against Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
Ward-Prowse took advantage of the wind whipping around Molineux to curl in a corner in the 84th minute after Lucas Paqueta’s 72nd-minute penalty had cancelled out a first-half spot-kick from Pablo Sarabia in this Premier League contest.
Wolves captain Maximilian Kilman thought he had levelled in the ninth minute of stoppage time but his header was ruled out for offside after a VAR intervention.
The win puts West Ham level on points with sixth-placed Manchester United in the fight for Europa League places, but their immediate European ambitions may well be hurt after Bowen fell awkwardly at the start of the second half, with the trip to Leverkusen looming on Thursday night.
David Moyes’ side have now taken 19 points from losing positions this season, although this was only West Ham’s third league win of 2024.
The Hammers could and should have taken the lead 11 minutes in through the industry of Bowen, who robbed Nelson Semedo on the byline and threaded a low ball through to Tomas Soucek yards from goal. However, the Czech Republic international could not get the ball out of his feet.
It was a key moment as Wolves went on to dominate the rest of the half. Rayan Ait-Nouri, nominally a left-back but a player who came into the game with three goals in four games after being shifted in a more attacking role, again took on the leading role.
The Algerian went close when he ran almost the length of the pitch to burst into the box, only for Kurt Zouma to slide in as he was about to pull the trigger, before Tommy
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