Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester United v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Old Trafford, Manchester, Britain - December 30, 2025 Manchester United's Joshua Zirkzee scores their first goal REUTERS/Phil Noble
MANCHESTER, England, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Manchester United suffered a frustrating end to 2025 as they were held to a 1-1 home draw by Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday as the Premier League's bottom side collected their third point of the season.
Ending a run of 11 straight defeats in the league, Wolves did not look like a side facing almost inevitable relegation as they managed to derail a United team seeking to break back into the top four.
Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee made the most of a rare start by giving United the lead in the 27th minute, fashioning a sliver of space on the edge of the box before scoring with a shot that deflected off Ladislav Krejci.
Benjamin Sesko almost made it two in the 39th minute but he headed his effort from a corner off the post, summing up a frustrating night for the 22-year-old Slovenian.
Wolves never backed down and Krejci equalised just before the break, Zirkzee giving him a helping hand by sending a defensive header across the box for the Czech to nod back in at the far post.
The tempo remained high in the second half, with Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sascrambling to prevent a header from teammate Yerson Mosquera from going into the net, while his United counterpartSenne Lammens pulled off a superb double save to deny Krejci and Mosquera.
Patrick Dorgu thought he had snatched a 90th-minute winner for United but the goal was chalked off for offside following a VAR review, leaving United sixth in the standings with 30 points. Wolves are bottom with three points from 19 games.
United coach Ruben Amorim was left frustrated by his side's inability to put away Wolves, who have failed to win any of their last 23 games in the league.
"Looking at the 90 minutes, we had our chances but the fluidity offensively wasn't there. There is a lack of connections at the moment," he told Sky Sports. "They tried, we didn't play well. When you don't play well with the ball, you struggle without it. We need to recover and go to the next one."
United fans were left scratching their heads when Zirkzee was replaced by Jack Fletcher at halftime.
"We were struggling with their midfielders, and sometimes you can attack better with less strikers. We played with three strikers and sometimes that's not the best thing to attack well," Amorim said.
"This game is over, you can not change the result of this one, but you can move on and go to the next one."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor,Editing by Christian Radnedge and Ed Osmond)
