Manchester United's final game of 2022 at Wolves remained goalless at halftime after Erik ten Hag dropped Marcus Rashford for an "internal disciplinary" issue.
Rashford watched on from the bench as fellow attackers Alejandro Garnacho and Antony went closest for the Red Devils during an absorbing 45 minutes.
Ten Hag's side are aiming to leapfrog Tottenham and move into the top four with a third consecutive Premier League win, having returned from the World Cup hiatus with a commanding 3-0 victory over Nottingham Forest.
Wolves are at the start of a new era themselves, with former Spain, Real Madrid and Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui enjoying a dramatic 2-1 win at Everton on his Premier League debut last time out.
Sporting News is following the match live and providing live score updates and commentary.
Goals:
MORE: Watch every Premier League match live with fuboTV in Canada
Halftime: United come closest to opening the scoring in the final action of the half. Bruno Fernandes spreads play out to the left, where Alejandro Garnacho goes inside and then outside to cross. Anthony Martial can't get on the end of it, Antony stoops to do so but doesn't make great contact and Jose Sa scrambles over to his far post to save.
45th minute: A relentless tempo has just slowed a little as halftime approaches. There'll be one minute of additional time.
39th minute: Casemiro makes a pretty cynical body check on Ruben Neves, who is still down. He gets what looks like a final warming and the lack of a yellow card does not go down well with the locals.
37th minute: Better from United as Alejandro Garnacho slips a pass towards the byline for Tyrell Malacia to cross first time. Antony heads goalwards but he was always backpedalling to get on the end of that.
35th minute: Raphael Varane finds Antony, whose dribble and stepover into the Wolves box is a little too predictable to read. I wonder how much trouble Marcus Rashford is in, because the United attack could probably do with him quite soon.
31st minute: Wolves break quickly after defending the corner, with Daniel Podence involved. Ruben Neves has a shot blocked behind and they have a set-piece opportunity of their own. Bruno Fernandes boots clear at the near post and play is stopped because Tyrell Malacia looks to have taken a blow to the face.
30th minute: Another nice move down the right from United and Bruno Fernandes spins a low cross towards Anthony Martial. It needed a very good challenge from Nathan Collins.
28th minute: Diego Costa decides it's time to show Luke Shaw what centre-back play is all about. He hurls himself into the Manchester United man. The ball was fairly incidental.
26th minute: Nelson Semedo brings Alejandro Garnacho down with a shove and a tug of the shirt and he's the first man into the book today. Julen Lopetegui is somewhat unimpressed with the decision.
24th minute: Massive challenge from Aaron Wan-Bissaka at the other end. Joao Moutinho looked set to score from Diego Costa's lay off. Wolves attack again, with Costa going it alone and shooting tamely at David de Gea.
Midway through the opening half and it remains goalless.
Podence and Costa with our best chances so far but one is blocked and one is saved. No way through. #COYW pic.twitter.com/2ir6rUXOyk — Wolves (@Wolves) December 31, 2022
23rd minute: Antony loses his footing when getting a shot away but a double deflection means Jose Sa has to change direction to save. It was fairly routine in the end, given so much pace had been taken off the shot. Antony and Aaron Wan-Bissaka are linking nicely down the United right.
17th minute: Huge let-off for Wolves! Nelson Semedo sells Jose Sa horribly short with a backpass and his goalkeeper bails him out by saving superbly from Alejandro Garnacho.
16th minute: Nice touch from Daniel Podence allows Matheus Nunes to cross but it's too high for Diego Costa and, to repeat a theme of Wolves' season, there aren't enough gold shirts getting into the box to support the attack.
14th minute: The Molineux crowd encourage Ruben Neves to shoot from 30 yards. He passes the ball out for a throw on the right. A shot might have been a better idea.
12th minute: Casemiro gets United going on the break with a brilliant pass. Anthony Martial advances the attack to Alejandro Garnacho, who sizes up the Wolves defence. Nelson Semedo sticks to his task, the cavalry arrive and Garnacho is crowded out.
10th minute: Max Kilman releases Hugo Bueno down the United left. Raphael Varane does well to get over and block the cross behind.
8th minute: United look to have settled nicely now as Anthony Martial drops off the front and pops a pass over the Wolves defence that scoots out for a goal kick.
6th minute: Close for United! Christian Eriksen whips a corner to the near post the Casemiro meets. It's deflected just over. Eriksen gets another go, Diego Costa gets it half clear and Alejandro Garnacho hits an ambitious volley way off target.
3rd minute: Proactive start from Wolves as Nelson Semedo raids forward from right-back to win a free-kick. It's worked short to Joao Moutinho who lumps the ball out for a goal kick. One from the training ground that needs to go back there for a bit more finessing.
2nd minute: Nathan Collins steps in to intercept and the Wolves centre-back strides up field. He takes a heavy touch though and clatters into Casemiro. A classic example of the referee deciding it's too early to book someone, because he absolutely merited a yellow card.
“Rest in peace, Pelé.”
Antony pays tribute to the late Brazilian icon during the one minute of applause before Wolves vs. Man Utd 🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/1gTWydWLAF — Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) December 31, 2022
2 mins from kickoff: The teams are now gathered in the centre of the field to pay tribute to Pele, with images of the Brazil icon on the stadium screens as the capacity crown applauds.
MORE: Pele 1940-2022: The man who taught the world the beautiful game
4 mins from kickoff: The teams are out on the field. There's a lively atmosphere at Molineux.
10 mins from kickoff: There's a high-class midfield battle in prospect at Molineux. Wolves' all-Portuguese trio are facing up to Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, who have started to build a productive relationship in the United engine room. Brazil international Casemiro is starting to look like something of a transformative signing for the Red Devils.
30 mins from kickoff: Erik ten Hag is partially sacrificing (the England star could still feature as a substitute) Marcus Rashford's goal threat today. He has 10 in all competitions for United this season. Wolves have only scored 10 altogether in the Premier League and will look to Diego Costa to spearhead their attack. The veteran, combative centre-forward will surely be relishing a game of this magnitude.
45 mins from kickoff: A bit of a pre-match bombshell from Erik ten Hag in his pre-match interview with BT Sport. He says Marcus Rashford has been benched due to an "internal disciplinary" issue. The United boss did not expand further.
55 mins from kickoff: Julen Lopetegui makes one change from the Wolves side that beat Everton 2-1, with Matheus Nunes coming in for youngster Joe Hodge.
1 hr from kickoff: The teams are in and Alejandro Garnacho gets a start for United, with Marcus Rashford dropping to the bench. Luke Shaw continues at centre-back.
1 hr 20 mins from kickoff: Erik ten Hag has not ruled out bringing in a new striker during the January transfer window. United are certainly light in that regard following Cristiano Ronaldo's departure. Liverpool stole a march on them to sign Cody Gakpo and the Red Devils will have to choose their next attacking reinforcement carefully. Over recent years, their record when it comes to signing forwards has not been great.
MORE: Man Utd strikers since Robin van Persie: Where does Cristiano Ronaldo rank in list of centre-forward signings?
1 hr 40 mins from kickoff: Today is always a special day for Manchester United, as it marks Alex Ferguson's birthday. In something of a rarity over recent years, things actually appear to be looking up for his latest successor.
2 hrs from kickoff: Hello and welcome to The Sporting News' coverage of Manchester United's New Year's Eve trip to Wolves in the Premier League.
Daniel Podence has shaken off a minor knock to remain in the Wolves forward line alongside Hwang Hee-chan and Diego Costa.
Rayan Ait-Nouri came off the bench to score the winner at Goodison Park but Hugo Bueno retains his place in the starting XI at left-back. Matheus Nunes comes into midfield, with Joe Hodge dropping to the bench.
Wolves XI (4-3-3): Sa (GK) — Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno — Nunes, Neves, Moutinho — Hwang, Costa, Podence
Luke Shaw is retained at left centre-back, meaning Harry Maguire must be content with a place on the bench. Lisandro Martinez has only just come back from Argentina and the World Cup winner is not in the squad.
Teenage star Alejandro Garnacho comes in at Molineux to freshen up the attack for the visitors, with Marcus Rashford benched due to an "internal disciplinary" issue.
Man United XI (4-2-3-1): De Gea (GK) — Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Shaw, Malacia — Casemiro, Eriksen — Garnacho, Fernandes, Antony — Martial
This Premier League clash will kick off at Molineux on Saturday, December 31 at 12:30 p.m. local time. Here's how that time translates across some of the major territories:
Kickoff time USA 07:30 ET Canada 07:30 ET UK 12:30 GMT Australia 23:30 AEDT India 18:30 IST Hong Kong 20:30 HKT Malaysia 20:30 MYT Singapore 20:30 SGT New Zealand 01:30 NZDT**Game starts on January 1 in these time zones
Here's how to watch all of the action from this match in some of the major territories:
TV channel Streaming USA USA Network, Telemundo fuboTV, Peacock Canada — fuboTV Canada UK BT Sport BT Sport Australia Optus Sport 1 Optus Sport New Zealand Sky Sport Sky Sports India — Star Sports Select Hong Kong — now TV Malaysia — Super Sport Singapore — StarHub TV+UK: Matches are usually carried across Sky Sports and BT Sport streaming and TV platforms, with the latter pay TV provide airing Wolves vs. United.
USA: The match will be televised on the USA Network and Telemundo (Spanish-language), and that broadcast can be streamed on fuboTV. It will be streamed in English on Peacock.
Canada: Every Premier League game this season is live streaming exclusively via fuboTV in Canada.
Australia: Fans in Australia can stream every match live and on demand on Optus Sport.
India: Star Sports network has the rights to show Premier League matches in India. As well as an English broadcast on Star Sports Select, select matches will be available via regional feeds on Star Sports 3 (in Bengali, English, Kannada, Malayalam), Star Sports 1 (Bangla) and Star Sports 1 (Tamil).