Pep Guardiola, the manager of Manchester City, omitted the name Hwang Hee-chan off his list of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ essential players before their Premier League encounter on Saturday at Molineux. However, the Spaniard will remember Hwang Hee-chan today.
The South Korean international winger scored the game-winning goal in the second half of a shocking 2-1 victory against champions City that put an end to City’s pristine start to the season.
“Always we struggle at Wolves, and when you see the quality individually that they have, especially up front with (Pedro) Neto, with (Matheus) Cunha, and with the Korean guy, they are really, really good,” Guardiola had told reporters at his press conference on Friday. “Always we struggle at Wolves.”
The lack of Hwang’s name was noticed, and after he scored, the Wolves made sure that it was spelt out by publishing a photo of him on social media with the phrase “The Korean Guy.”
Even though Guardiola was had to see the game from the stands as part of his suspension, he was able to take solace in the fact that his analysis was entirely accurate.
Ruben Dias scored an own goal via a deflection off of Neto’s cross in the 13th minute, and Cunha assisted Hwang with the ball that he needed to score in the 66th minute.
We needed to devise a strategy that would allow us to maintain our stability while still fielding a sufficient number of offensive players to propel us up the field. Gary O’Neil, the manager of Wolves, said in an interview with the BBC that his team had excellent preparation for the game.
“The lads noticed all the (patterns) that we looked at, and they executed it brilliantly,” she said.
The fact that we were able to win against the finest squad in the world and probably ever is a huge accomplishment for our group.