Manchester, Jan. 4 (BNA): Manchester United suffered their first defeat under interim coach Ralf Rangnick, losing 1-0 at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English Premier League.
Joao Moutinho scored an attack in the 82nd minute to give Wolves their first win at Old Trafford since 1980 and move Bruno Lage’s team to eighth, Reuters reported.
United, who may have few complaints about the result after a poor performance, stay in seventh place with 31 points – four points behind Arsenal, who are currently fourth in the Champions League.
Wolves created a string of chances in the first half, but it wasn’t until eight minutes left that they counted their advantage when Moutinho hit Phil Jones’ header and smashed past David de Gea.
Jerman Rangnick, who was in charge of United until the end of the season after taking over from the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, saw a disjointed display by his side with little sign of the high-energy pressing style they initially attempted.
“We didn’t play well at all, individually or collectively,” said Rangnick. “In the first half, we had big problems to keep them out of our goal.”
“The match showed that we still have a lot of work to do. We had a lot of unforced errors. I don’t want to talk about the individual performance of the players. It’s the issue of the whole team. It doesn’t make sense,” he added.
The injury-hit Jones made his Premier League debut in nearly two years as Rangnick turned former England defender in the absence of Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Eric Bailly.
The 29-year-old put on a solid performance on his return before a poorly refereed header swept towards Moutinho leading to the goal.
Wolves could easily have had a comfortable lead by the end of the first half with Daniel Bodens, Robin Neves and Nelson Semedo all having them all brought in United goalkeeper De Gea early in the game.
United made little with their best opener in the first half that ended when Edinson Cavani hit a long shot when he should have played at Mason Greenwood.
Greenwood was United’s most creative player and there was a rare jeer from home fans when Rangnick picked him to make way for Bruno Fernandes’ introduction.
Fernandes should have put United ahead when he hit a low shot across the penalty area from Nemanja Matic against the crossbar and Ronaldo headed home from Fernandes’ cross, but the effort was reported as offside.
Wolves weren’t in the mood to sit down, though, and content themselves with a tie and also finding the woodwork when Roman Sais hit the crossbar with a free kick.
The visitor’s endeavors were finally rewarded when Moutinho settled the case with a low shot past the helpless De Gea and set off wild celebrations in support of the travel.
“Winning here at Old Trafford against a top team is great for us,” said Moutinho.
“We came here to play football and play with the ball and that’s what we do. We made a lot of shots in the first half. We controlled everything. We let them create only one chance.”