{"id":1191476,"date":"2026-09-07T13:43:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1191476\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T13:43:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T13:43:26","slug":"birmingham-city-2-2-wolves-west-midlands-derby-ends-in-draw-after-thrilling-contest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1191476\/","title":{"rendered":"Birmingham City 2-2 Wolves: West Midlands derby ends in draw after thrilling contest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Jackson\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Birmingham<\/a> City and Wolverhampton Wanderers<\/a> battled to a breathless 2-2 draw in the Championship<\/a> at St Andrew\u2019s<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Wolves<\/a> twice took the lead through Fer Lopez and Ladislav Krejci, but Jay Stansfield and a Jackson Tchatchoua own goal ensured the West Midlands derby was level at half-time.<\/p>\n

City missed two chances after the break before Wolves\u2019 Adam Armstrong should have won it for the visitors, while both sides hit the bar.<\/p>\n

Wolves head coach Cesar Peixoto was left frustrated by the absence of VAR after Stansfield\u2019s equaliser, with replays suggesting the Birmingham striker may have controlled the ball with his arm before firing into the roof of the net.<\/p>\n

For exclusive stories and all the detailed EFL<\/a> news<\/a> you need,\u00a0<\/strong>subscribe to The Football League Paper<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0website, digital edition, or newspaper from as little as 14p a day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Important<\/p>\n

Peixoto said: \u201cI don\u2019t blame the referees because they don\u2019t always see, but VAR is very important to be more fair in the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have VAR in the Championship but I think it\u2019s very important to help referees make the best decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a handball and on the screen I saw handball, but the referee didn\u2019t whistle and that\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolves right-back Tchatchoua\u2019s own goal will live long in the memory after he hooked past goalkeeper Jose Sa to make it 2-2.<\/p>\n

But Peixoto, who confirmed the arrival of free agent winger Bertrand Traore, defended the Cameroon international, saying: \u201cI don\u2019t want these kind of mistakes, but Jackson didn\u2019t do it on purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to stay together to help him improve because he has done a great job in the last few games.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday he made a mistake but his team-mates helped him and fought for him and the dressing room stayed with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will never put the blame on one player. It can happen \u2013 in the same way Adam Armstrong missed in the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"FUMING: Wolves head coach Cesar Peixoto was frustrated Birmingham City<\/a>\u2019s first equaliser was allowed to stand.
PICTURE: John Walton\/PAMatch action<\/p>\n

Wolves made a perfect start by taking a third-minute lead from a flowing move.<\/p>\n

Lopez tapped home Rodrigo Gomes\u2019 cross after Lopez fed Raul Jimenez and the Mexican found Gomes on the overlap.<\/p>\n

It was the Spaniard\u2019s fifth goal of the season in all competitions and third in the Championship.<\/p>\n

In an exciting first half, Paik Seung-ho\u2019s deflected shot was palmed away by Jose Sa at the other end, then Wolves had a penalty appeal turned down.<\/p>\n

Bright Osayi-Samuel appeared to take down Jimenez as both went for the ball but referee Adam Herczeg waved play on.<\/p>\n

Birmingham gifted Wolves a golden chance in the 18th minute as Christoph Klarer\u2019s awful first touch let in Jimenez, who fed Gomes to his right for a shot parried away by James Beadle, with Klarer clearing near the line.<\/p>\n

Stansfield then thundered home the equaliser in the 22nd minute.<\/p>\n

After Patrick Roberts\u2019 chip dropped over Andre, Stansfield controlled the ball before rifling home on the half volley, despite Wolves\u2019 unsuccessful appeal that he had controlled the ball with his arm.<\/p>\n

\"JacksonOH NO: Jackson Tchatchoua, left, scored an own goal in Sunday\u2019s clash between Birmingham City and Wolves.
\nPICTURE: Nick Potts\/PAMissed chance<\/p>\n

The visitors regained the lead in the 31st minute with Krejci steaming in to head home after Andre flicked on Hugo Bueno\u2019s corner at the near post.<\/p>\n

Wolves then presented Birmingham with a second equaliser in the 36th minute.<\/p>\n

From Phil Neumann\u2019s hopeful long ball, Tchatchoua hooked it backwards past Sa, who desperately chased back but could not prevent the ball bouncing into the net.<\/p>\n

Jimenez rattled the top of the bar with a 30-yard curling free kick as Wolves looked for more goals but Blues<\/a> looked the more likely scorers for most of the second half.<\/p>\n

Neumann\u2019s header flicked off Tchatchoua onto the bar, then Klarer flashed a free header just wide.<\/p>\n

In between, the hosts appealed in vain for a penalty when Andre challenged August Priske.<\/p>\n

Wolves missed the chance to win it in the 87th minute when Armstrong ballooned over the bar from Lopez\u2019s square pass with Beadle committed.<\/p>\n

Then Blues substitute Martin Ducksch\u2019s free-kick forced a diving save from Sa.<\/p>\n

Unnecessary<\/p>\n

Birmingham manager Chris Davies disagreed with Peixoto over the handball controversy.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI thought it was Jay\u2019s side that controlled the ball. I\u2019m not a fan of VAR, but it\u2019s for offsides and goal-line technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Bromwich Albion striker Aune Heggebo was suspended for two matches for \u201cdeceiving a match official\u201d after handling when scoring against Norwich City<\/a> last month, but Davies insists no retrospective action should be considered against Stansfield.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he added. \u201cI think this is a really different situation. I don\u2019t know if it is handball. That would be unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe game\u2019s the game and, if anything, we should have won it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to the players, I will always be content with that spirit. I will be astonished if Wolves aren\u2019t in the top four with their quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blues had owner Tom Wagner back in the directors\u2019 box for the first time since he had a stroke in February.<\/p>\n

Davies said: \u201cHe has been through an awful lot but his recovery is progressing well and it was a case of us taking a lot from him being here today.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Stoke City 4-0 Charlton Athletic: Justin Devenny\u2019s debut joy<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers battled to a breathless 2-2 draw in the Championship at St Andrew\u2019s. Wolves…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1191477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,12905,13877,748,9030,40162,23712,393,94,40403,4884,12,29276,35559,34328,16,15,1928,5774],"class_list":["post-1191476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-birmingham","tag-birmingham","tag-birmingham-city","tag-blues","tag-britain","tag-championship","tag-charlton-athletic","tag-efl","tag-england","tag-football","tag-football-league","tag-great-britain","tag-news","tag-norwich-city","tag-stoke-city","tag-top-story","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wolverhampton-wanderers","tag-wolves"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1191476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1191476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1191477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1191476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1191476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1191476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}