Costa is sent off in disgrace after headbutt
DIEGO COSTA was shown a straight red card yesterday after a headbutt late on in Wolves’ draw at Brentford.
The Spaniard had endured yet another frustrating afternoon on his return to the Premier League and lashed out at Ben Mee late on.
Referee Bobby Madley, taking charge of his first Premier League game since he was sacked in 2018, checked the pitchside monitor before showing Costa a red card. He won’t play again before the World Cup.
‘He’s apologised,’ said Wolves caretaker boss Steve Davis. ‘We’ll have a conversation with him next week.’
Wolves did at least finally show grit and determination to earn themselves their first point on the road since August, even if Costa over-stepped the mark. They might well have collapsed when Mee gave Thomas Frank’s side the lead in the 50th minute. But Ruben Neves, perhaps Wolves’ biggest character of all, fired in a superb equaliser two minutes later.
‘We’ve talked about the mentality,’ said Davis. ‘I felt (our) confidence goes very quickly when we concede but today we didn’t see that, we saw a great reaction and players who wanted to do well and wanted to try and win the game and then try to defend the goal really well, so I thought the reaction was excellent.’
This was a captain’s performance from Neves at a time his team needed it most. The departure of Conor Coady has left Wolves bereft of leaders. Neves has not helped himself by fueling transfer talk of a move away but there was no doubting his commitment to the cause here. Whether it be his pressing in attack or his willingness to defend, everything Wolves did went through their skipper.
‘He got a couple of kicks first half, he was putting his foot in there,’ Davis said. ‘I think he’s been outstanding for us this season and he’s such an influence for us on the pitch. We know he can pop up in that position and finish like he did.’
Though this was an improvement on their performance at Leicester, Wolves still have issues. It is no surprise they are the lowest scorers in the Premier League with just six goals in 14 games.
But Brentford fared no better in attack. Ivan Toney missed the Bees’ best chance of the first half as he sent Bryan Mbeumo’s cross wide. Things were not clicking for the forward, who later slipped as he went to take a shot in the box.
Frank revealed his star striker had been suffering with illness in the build-up to yesterday’s game. ‘He has been sick, both Thursday and Friday,’ Frank said. ‘Unfortunately I think it impacted his game a bit. I think the ball got caught under him two or three times. Not everyone is having top touches for 90 minutes in every game, but I think it impacted his game a bit.’
Last season’s game here was delayed for 20 minutes due to a drone flying over the stadium and there were stoppages galore here
too, with Neves and Matheus Nunes requiring treatment before Brentford’s Mathias Jensen went down with a knock.
The stoppages only served to make a dull game even worse as a wild shot from Boubacar Traore summed up the attacking quality of the first half.
The good news was that things could only get better and five minutes into the second half the game came to life through an unlikely source. A clever Brentford corner saw the ball worked to Mbeumo and his cross was met by a stunning bicycle kick from Mee.
Wolves could have capitulated but finally showed the fight Davis has been demanding. Two minutes after going behind they were level, with an equally brilliant goal. Adama Traore’s pass found Semedo and he teed up Neves, who hit an emphatic shot into the top-right corner.
Both teams had chances to take the lead as Josh Dasilva saw an effort blocked while Raya saved from Costa at the other end. But the best opportunity fell to Toney, who headed wide after the ball was flicked on by Keane LewisPotter. It was not his day and a yellow card in the second half, his fifth of the season, means he will miss next weekend’s game at Nottingham Forest.
But it was worse for Costa. Referee Madley, back in the Premier League for the first time since he was sacked for filming a video where he appeared to mock a disabled person, sent the striker off after a VAR review.