South Korea’s Hwang Hee-chan scored his third goal of the season in a home match against Liverpool.
Hwang’s English Premier League club Wolverhampton is hosting Liverpool in the fifth round of the 2023/24 Premier League at Molineux Stadium in Wolverhampton, England, starting at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. Heading into the match, Wolverhampton is 1-3-1 (3 points) and in 15th place. Liverpool, on the other hand, are in third place with three wins and a draw (10 points).
Wolverhampton have the advantage of being at home, but with their opponents being the favorites, even a point would be a successful 90 minutes.
Against this backdrop, Wolverhampton manager Garry O’Neill has brought back Hwang Hee-chan, the team’s top scorer this season, to lead the charge against Liverpool. O’Neill has named Portuguese international Jose Sa in goal, with Nelson Semedo (Portugal), Max Kilman (England), Craig Dawson (England), and Layan Ayew-Nouri (Algeria) in a back four.
In the middle of the park was Jean-Lucerne Belgarde (France), who was making his Premier League debut, alongside João Gomes (Brazil) and Mario Lemina (Gabon). The front three was made up of Hwang Hee-chan, Mateus Cunha (Brazil) and Pedro Neto (Portugal) from left to right.
O’Neill’s gamble paid off. Hwang gave Wolverhampton the lead with a goal in the seventh minute of the first half at 0-0. After shutting down Liverpool’s attack, Wolverhampton found Neto on the left flank, who dribbled 60 meters before beating three defenders on the left side of the penalty area and crossing low to the other side. Hwang ran onto it and fired a diagonal right-footed shot from the right side of the goal area.
Liverpool’s Brazilian international goalkeeper Alisson Becker was quick to stop the shot, but the ball had already crossed the goal line. Hwang celebrated by running in front of the home fans, jumping up and down and pumping his fist in the air.
The goal was Hwang’s third of the season. After just five games, he has already matched his goal tally from last season’s Premier League.
Hwang started this season off the bench, but his two goals have helped him earn his way back into the starting lineup.
After playing 27 minutes in the opening match against Manchester United on August 14, Hwang came on 18 minutes into the second half and scored a header five minutes after coming on in the 10th minute of the second half to overcome a 0-4 deficit against Brighton on August 19, giving him his first Premier League goal of the new season.
Hwang built on that goal to make his first start of the season against Everton on Aug. 26, but was forced off midway through the first half when he felt a twinge in his hamstring (the muscle in the back of his thigh), a nagging injury. However, it turned out not to be a serious injury and he came on as a 15th minute substitute in the fourth round against Crystal Palace, and again, five minutes after taking the field, he scored a goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the 20th minute to revitalize the team.
Hwang then joined Klinsmann’s squad for two matches against England, coming on as a substitute against Wales on Aug. 8 and starting against Saudi Arabia on Aug. 13. After the two A matches, O’Neill was able to confirm that there were no major issues with the player’s body.
The youngster scored the opening goal seven minutes into the match to prove his rise to prominence. Hwang is now tied for fourth in the Premier League in goals, behind Elling Holland (Man City – six), Evan Ferguson (Brighton) and Brian Mbemo (Brentford – four), along with senior international Son Heung-min (Tottenham), who exploded for a hat-trick at Burnley on Feb. 2.
Wolverhampton took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute of the first half thanks to a well-defended Hwang Hee-chan goal.바카라
Prior to the game, Hwang made headlines for his comments about Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp.
He was the first name to come to mind when Klopp said that the Reds would be on high alert against bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton. “If you look at Wolverhampton’s squad, they don’t even have good (threatening) players like Hwang (Hee-Chan) or Sascha Kalajic in the starting lineup,” Klopp said.
Klopp’s statement was a clear indication that he was going to go all out against Wolverhampton, and he singled out Hwang as the reason why. Klopp’s comments proved to be spot on.
Meanwhile, Liverpool started with Brazil international Alisson Becker in goal and a back four of Andrew Robertson (Scotland), Joe Gomes (England), Joel Matip (Cameroon), and Jael Kwansa (England) from left to right. The center backs are Curtis Jones (England), Alexis McAllister (England), and Dominic Soboszlai (Hungary). Diogo Jota (Portugal), Cody Hakpo (Netherlands), and Mohamed Salah (Egypt) completed the back three.
Japanese midfielder Wataru Endo, who joined Liverpool this summer, started the game against Wolverhampton from the bench. Liverpool’s Uruguayan forward Darwin Nunes also started from the bench.