LONDON, United Kingdom, Dec 26 – Manchester United’s set-piece curse struck again as Matheus Cunha became the second player in three games to score directly from a corner against them as Wolves defeated them to climb out of the bottom three.
Ruben Amorim’s men were already up against it at at Molineux following the 47th-minute dismissal of skipper Bruno Fernandes for a second yellow card.
However, just as Son Hueng-min did for Tottenham a week ago, Cunha found the net with a corner that sailed over Andre Onana’s outstretched arm in a crowded six-yard box.
The points were sealed in the eighth minute of added time when, as United chased an equaliser, Wolves broke and Cunha squared the ball for Hwang Hee-chan to make it 2-0.
In recent weeks, Amorim has tried and failed to make his side more secure but Arsenal, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth have also capitalised from United’s frailty at defending balls pumped into their box during a run of five defeats in seven games in all competitions.
Amorim has now collected seven points from his six league games in charge. By contrast new Wolves boss Vitor Pereira has six from two as he followed up the weekend win at Leicester with a first home victory over United since 2019.
If life was not bad enough for United, they will now be without Fernandes for the home game with Newcastle on 30 December and also midfielder Manuel Ugarte, who picked up his fifth booking of the season.
Cunha the star man for Wolves
While the manner of his goal was bizarre, if anyone was likely to score it, Cunha was that man.
The Brazilian had actually tried the corner trick in the first-half but on that occasion, United escaped.
In a pretty drab opening period, this was the kind of inventiveness that stood out.
Much has been made about the players Wolves have sold and the lack of quality replacing them.
However, as long as they have Cunha, they will always have a goal threat.
Leny Yoro had already been booked for cynical foul on the Brazilian before Fernandes followed suit with a tackle that would have greater consequences later in the game.
Noussair Mazraoui needed to be absolutely spot on with his tackle to avoid a similar fate after Cunha had advanced into the visitors half in a move that began with a superb piece of skill to control the ball by the touchline.
A disguised pass to Joao Gomes was another moment to savour from the 25-year-old and no neutral could have begrudged him the tap-in had United goalkeeper Andre Onana not got down to prevent Matt Doherty’s low cross reaching him.
His reward was to come though. Not only did score, taking his tally for the season to 10, he unselfishly squared a pass to Hwang to provide the South Korean with a tap-in to seal the points in the final minute of stoppage time.
