Newcastle United 0-2 Wolves
- Published
Wolves bounced back from Tuesday's thrashing by Barnsley with a victory that ended Newcastle United's five-match Championship winning streak.
Chancel Mbemba headed Jon Dadi Bodvarsson's cross into his own net to give the visitors, who lost 4-0 in midweek, a half-time lead.
Winger Helder Costa curled in a second from 18 yards just after the hour.
Newcastle, 6-0 winners at QPR on Tuesday, ended the game with 10 men after Vurnon Anita was sent off.
The midfielder was shown a straight red card three minutes from time for a challenge on Wolves substitute Ivan Cavaleiro, but it had little impact on the final outcome.
The two sides could hardly have gone into the game in more contrasting form, with Newcastle having kept five successive clean sheets while Wolves had not won in three games and conceded four times in the final 17 minutes at home against Barnsley.
But Walter Zenga's side began brightly as a Costa shot was cleared off the line, while Bodvarsson's follow-up hit the top of the bar.
Wolves keeper Carl Ikeme saved Ayoze Perez's shot from 12 yards well as Rafael Benitez's side threatened before the visitors opened up their two-goal lead.
Bodvarsson fired over when presented with a chance to make it 3-0, while Ikeme saved with his legs to deny Aleksandar Mitrovic as Newcastle sought a way back into the game.
That proved to be the Magpies' last meaningful effort as Wolves held on to win on Tyneside for the first time since 1991.
Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez: "The football decisions were wrong and then we put ourselves under pressure.
"It's a bad day, but we have to analyse what was wrong and try to change it. It's not that you have to forget - you have to forget, but try to understand why and try to correct things as soon as possible.
"You have to change players, but we did it before and we were winning. Today it was just doing from the beginning a lot of things wrong, that's it."
Wolves boss Walter Zenga: "I am delighted because I got an answer from the team. We prepared for this game to show to ourselves first of all that the last 15 minutes of the last game was an accident, was something that can happen in football.
"The players wanted to see a reaction themselves to show that the last 15 minutes was a shock for everybody. Besides the fact that we won 2-0 here in Newcastle, the spirit of the team, how they approached the game, how they started the game, how they played is a big answer to everybody.
"Playing at this stadium in front of 52,000 fans against a team that came from five victories in a row, four games without conceding a goal and the last game was 6-0 for them away and we lost 4-0 at home, the approach was very important, and that is my satisfaction about today."
- Published14 January 2018
- Published7 June 2019