Brentford concedes farcical goal in loss to Wolves

BRENTFORD, England (AP) — South Korea forward Hwang Hee-chan scored twice as Wolverhampton took full advantage of Brentford's defensive mistakes to secure a 4-1 win in the Premier League on Wednesday.

Wolves followed up its win on Sunday over Chelsea by collecting another festive three points.

It was a first victory in London in 15 attempts for Wolves, the last coming in a 2-0 win at Tottenham in February last year. But it was gifted to the visitors by a depleted Brentford side which could soon be looking nervously over its shoulder at the relegation battle after a fourth straight defeat and a sixth in seven matches.

The first goal came in the 13th minute, when Pablo Sarabia's cross was met by a header from the totally unmarked Mario Lemina to put Wolves ahead.

What came next was farcical for the hosts as they played the ball back from their own kickoff toward goalkeeper Mark Flekken. Nathan Collins’ back pass to the Dutchman was under-hit and, barely 10 seconds after the restart, Hwang had rounded him and tapped into an empty net.

The Bees quickly pulled one back when Yoane Wissa latched on to Neal Maupay’s clever flick and firing home.

But Wolves scored again when Toti’s powerful clearing header was allowed to float between Collins and Mads Roerslev and straight to Hwang. He turned, lifted the ball over the covering Ethan Pinnock and fired the ball past the exposed Flekken into the bottom corner.

Midtable Wolves lost Hwang to a back injury moments before the interval, but his replacement Jean-Ricner Bellegarde wrapped up the victory with 11 minutes left. Collins' lazy pass across the face of goal was intercepted by Matheus Cunha, who played in Bellegarde for a simple finish.

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