West Ham win marred by Bowen injury with Europa quarterfinal looming
WOLVERHAMPTON, England (AP) — West Ham came from behind to win at Wolverhampton 2-1 in the English Premier League after Jarrod Bowen was injured on Saturday, days before its Europa League clash against Bundesliga champion-elect Bayer Leverkusen.
James Ward-Prowse took advantage of the wind whipping around Molineux to curl in directly from a corner in the 84th minute. Lucas Paqueta's 72nd-minute penalty canceled out a first-half spot kick from Pablo Sarabia.
Wolves captain Maximilian Kilman thought he levelled in the ninth minute of stoppage time but his header was ruled out for offside by VAR.
The win put West Ham level on points with sixth-placed Manchester United in the fight for Europa League places, but its immediate European ambitions may well be hurt after Bowen, the team's top scorer, fell awkwardly at the start of the second half. The trip to Leverkusen looms on Thursday.
“He’s had a knee into his hip, or into his back,” West Ham manager David Moyes said. “It’s not a twist but he’s really stiff.
"I’ve had one or two of those myself and they don’t go away too quickly so we need to hope it doesn’t linger with him.”
West Ham has taken 19 points from losing positions this season, although this was only the team's third league win of 2024.
Wolves dominated the first half, and the pressure paid off when Tommy Doyle’s pass from the left found another excellent run from Rayan Ait-Nouri, who was felled by Emerson Palmieri in the box. After a VAR check, Sarabia stepped up to beat Lukasz Fabianski with a spot kick in off the right post.
Moyes may have had one eye on Thursday’s trip to Germany when he left Michail Antonio on the bench but he took action at the break as the Jamaican came on to make his 300th appearance, joined by Ben Johnson as Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal made way.
Minutes after the restart Bowen appeared to injure his hip after a challenge with Gomes, and moments later Wolves lost Ait-Nouri, who hobbled off in the 55th minute to be replaced by Matheus Cunha.
The changes seemed to do more to help West Ham as they finally exerted some pressure.
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