Wolves 1 (Chirewa 59) RB Leipzig 1 (Ngatcheu 35)
Wolves earned their first point of this season’s Premier League International Cup following a spirited performance against RB Leipzig at the SEAH Stadium.
Yohan Ngatcheu’s impressive finish opened the scoring inside the first half, before Tawanda Chirewa’s equaliser on the other side of half-time ultimately earned his side the point.
Wolves started the brighter of the two sides and carved out early opportunities to pull themselves in front. Luke Rawlings had sight of goal first when he met a clearance following a Wolves corner, stinging the palms of Franz Hanschmann in goal.
Mateus Mane was next to try his luck. He picked up the ball on the halfway line and beat a handful of Leipzig defenders, before crashing an effort off the crossbar.
From the resulting corner, Saheed Olagunju rose highest and cushioned a header back across goal, for Temple Ojinnaka to guide towards goal, but his header had too much height on it.
Despite Wolves progressively asserting dominance, RB Leipzig struck against the run of play. Niko Tomasevic led the attack and fed Ngatcheu on the right flank, who cut inside and fired past Lewys Benjamin.
Chances continued to materialise for the home side, but they were left to rue their missed chances by half-time. Tawanda Chirewa had the final effort of the half, but his powerful strike was comfortable enough for Hantschmann to save.
The visitors looked to double their advantage early in the second half, with Din Klapija sending two efforts from distance over the crossbar.
Wolves soon wrestled back momentum and found their equaliser just shy of the hour mark. Chirewa advanced past his marker and reached the by-line, before smartly lifting his effort over Hantschmann to draw Wolves back level.
Benjamin was then called into action on two occasions to prevent Leipzig from regaining the lead. First, he reacted brilliantly to deny Klapija’s powerful strike, before safely gathering Abdulbaki’s effort.
Substitute Fletcher Holman almost made an impact with 70 minutes on the clock, crashing an effort off the crossbar via a half-chance from the right-side of the penalty area.
Benjamin, outstanding throughout, produced further heroics when he denied two more Leipzig strikes. First, he rushed out to block Toni Langsteiner’s effort in a one-on-one situation, before seconds later diving down to his right to deny Benno Kaltefleiter’s testing strike.
Despite Wolves’ best efforts to find a winning goal of their own, a second for the hosts proved elusive.
LINEUPS
Wolves | Benjamin, Ojinnaka, Olagunju, Okoduwa, Pond, Bradbury (Barnett 68), Chirewa, Rawlings, Mane, Edozie (Holman 52), Sutherland.
Unused subs | Brooks, Lopes, Esen, Angel, Lochhead.
RB Leipzig | Hantschmann, Kaltefleiter, Schuldes, Konate (Al Khalaf 71), Tomasevic (Brouker 71), Ngana (Voufack 32), Langsteiner, Ngatcheu (Naumann 86), Masauka Bungi (Mueller 32), Gebel, Klapija.
Unused subs | Daffner, Franke.
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Written by Callum Greybanks
