Gross sends Brighton into top six with winner at Wolves

WOLVERHAMPTON, England, Nov 5 (Reuters) – A late goal from Pascal Gross sealed a thrilling 3-2 win for Brighton & Hove Albion at 10-man Wolverhampton Wanderers in a thrilling Premier League clash on Saturday.

Wolves lagged behind an early goal from Adam Lallana, then went ahead with goals from Goncalo Guedes and Ruben Neves only for Kaoru Mitoma to equalize and Nelson Semedo to see a red card, all before half-time.

Brighton were pushing for a winner after the break but the Fighting Wolves defended themselves admirably until Gross shot high on the net in the 83rd minute for his fifth league goal of the season.

It’s been tough for Wolves, who had previously appointed Spaniard Julen Lopetegui as their new manager, but Brighton deservedly confirmed last week’s win over Chelsea to move up to sixth place.

Brighton have 21 points from 13 games played, while Wolves sit 19th with 10 points.

“Three points in any Premier League game is huge. A little bit of relief at the end. When they went down to 10 it got harder,” said Lallana.

“But we persevered and Pascal showed trumps again.”

Former Real Madrid, Sevilla and Spain coach Lopetegui has a big job ahead of him and given he was watching from afar on Saturday, Wolves’ recent performance was hardly reassuring.

The fact that they scored two goals, taking their pathetic goals to a total of eight, was pretty much the only plus.

Substitute coach Steve Davis, who will be in charge of the Premier League until the end of the World Cup, has now lost four of the six games since replacing Bruno Lage.

Brighton started well and Lallana opened the scoring in the 10th minute with a great right-footed shot from inside the area after a clean pass.

The hosts were level two minutes later when Guedes stayed upright despite a tug from Mitoma as he sped through and flicked a shot past Brighton keeper Robert Sanchez.

It lifted spirits around Molineux and Wolves took the lead in the 35th minute when a VAR check revealed Lewis had handled dunk during a Wolves attack.

The stadium erupted when Neves fired his shot home, but everything went wrong for the hosts before the break. Lallana’s pass freed Mitoma, who found the bottom corner with a clean finish, and the Japanese midfielder, who was never far from the action, was then tackled by Semedo in rugby in first-half injury time as he charged towards goal.

Brighton’s skillful passing occasionally opened up for Wolves after the break, but the hosts showed their fighting qualities and even had a few moments at the other end, notably when substitute Adama jabbed Traore Sanchez in the fingers with a fierce shot from a tight angle.

However, Wolves finally cracked as Mitoma played superbly down the left and the ball was eventually pulled back to Gross, who smashed an uphill drive past Jose Sa.

Reporting by Martyn Herman Editing by Toby Davis and Clare Fallon

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