It may screech to a halt tomorrow, or it could take us all the way to Cologne on the 21st. Either way, it’s been one hell of a ride.
From that balmy night in Turin to victory at Besiktas and that Ruben howitzer against Espanyol, we’ve already created memories to last a lifetime.
But we’re still in it and there’s no reason it should end here, so as Olympiakos come to town I thought it would be worth compiling a bit of research on our opponents and the challenges that lie ahead should Wolves advance to the quarter-finals and beyond.
Olympiakos
Olympiakos won the Greek Super League with an astonishing 91 point from 36 fixtures with an 18 point gap to PAOK in second. They only lost once in the league all season.
They despatched Arsenal over two legs and despite playing the majority of the first leg against Wolves with a man less, they still could have emerged with a win. They’re talented and resilient which makes them a major threat.
33-year-old Youssef El Arabi is their danger man. The striker has scored 20 goals in the league and also put them ahead in the tie back in March. Fellow veteran Mathieu Valbuena is another threat both creating and scoring regularly.
Defender Ruben Semedo will miss the game having been the man sent off in the first leg and goalkeeper Jose Sa may also sit it out having picked up an injury.
Quarter Final – Roma / Sevilla
These two great clubs are already in Germany ready to battle it out over a single leg on Thursday to see who will face the winner of our tie and there probably isn’t a clear favourite.
Sevilla finished 4th in La Liga, level on 70 points with Atletico Madrid in third to qualify for the Champions League. They’re undefeated in all competitions since February. They’ve won this trophy a record five times, most recently in 2016.
Roma have won seven of their last eight, including a 3-1 victory over champions Juventus on the final day of Serie A. They also managed 70 points but it was only good enough for fifth.
Either way, if Wolves are able to progress beyond Thursday they’re going to have one hell of a game on their hands in the quarter final.
Semi-Final – Man Utd /
Istanbul Basaksehir / Copenhagen
Man Utd have to complete the formality of their second leg but 5-0 up from the away tie against LASK, we can consider them through to the quarter finals.
They’ll either play Turkish champions Istanbul Basakiehir or a Copenhagen side managed by a certain Ståle Solbakken. Basaksehir lead the tie 1-0 from the first leg.
Istanbul Basaksehir are the surprise package of the season taking their first ever league title, albeit with a modest 69 points from 34 games. They’re packed full of veteran ex-Premier League players like Gael Clichy, Demba Ba, Robinho and Martin Skrtel. They put out Sporting Lisbon in the last round so it’s clear they pose a significant threat.
Copenhagen finished second in their domestic league and stumbled through the group stage of this competition. They did however show incredible character to dump Celtic out in the previous round, winning 3-1 in the away leg, so you can’t bet entirely against them turning around the tie on their own patch.
I’d love to avoid Man Utd but if they turn up anything close to full strength, I struggle to see either of the above sides being good enough to beat them.
Final – Rangers / Leverkusen / Inter Milan / Getafe / Wolfsburg / Shakhtar Donetsk / Frankfurt / Basel
Rangers were turned over 3-1 by Leverkusen at Ibrox so it’s a long way back for Steven Gerrard’s men in the second leg tomorrow. I’ll be astonished if they turn that one around. Leverkusen boast one of Europe’s biggest talents in Kai Havertz, strongly linked with a silly money move to the Premier League.
Inter Milan and Getafe will contest a one-off contest tonight for the chance to face the winner of the above tie in the quarter finals. You’d have to fancy Inter, who only finished a point behind Juventus in a strong Serie A campaign. Getafe started the season well but ended horrendously to end the campaign 8th in La Liga.
Shakhtar Donetsk scored a 2-1 win in Wolfsburg from the first leg of their tie so will be favourites to advance with the home leg tonight. They comfortably won the Ukrainian Premier League, 23 points clear of Dynamo Kiev. Wolfsburg finished 7th in the Bundesliga and there’s little to suggest they’ll score the minimum two goals needed to progress here.
Basel won 3-0 in Frankfurt so are probably as good as through as they contest the home leg tomorrow. Progress in the Europa League is probably the highlight of their season having only finished 3rd in their domestic league, some 14 points off Young Boys in first.
In knockout football, you can never be certain of anything, but Inter Milan are the standout team on this side of the draw and the most likely opponent for whoever progresses from our half.
Olympiakos > Sevilla > Man Utd > Inter Milan
That’s the most likely pathway to winning the Europa League, underlining the tremendous challenge that lies ahead.
As Nuno says, it’s never wise to think beyond the next game (thus he would probably think less of me for even producing this rundown), but as he also stated not so long ago – dreaming is for free.
Olympiakos are, indeed, a very good side.
We were a trifle fortunate to come away with a draw in Greece.
They looked better than us with eleven men… and with ten actually.
I’m a bit worried about tomorrow, especially after our lacklustre recent performances.
So we might only win by a single goal.
After that, the sky’s the limit.
SOS penk wolfs it would be great to advance to the latter stages but if not we have still had one hell of a season.Never forget where we came from wolves aye we COYW
On the contrary SOS, I think we should forget where we came from and focus on what level we’ve reached and the way forward from here
70 points in la Liga or seri a amounts to about 50 points in the prem by my reckoning so nothing to be too frightened of ,
Hopefully with a few of the likely teams to progress having already qualified for the champions league they may rest a few players in what has been a very long and strange season
Man Utd are the favourites and I can understand that on form
I don’t however believe olly when he says it’s an opportunity for their kids,
He will be desperate to pick up his first trophy.
We are dangerous though and I fancy us to click bang into form just in time starting tomorrow night
Dreaming is free but the reality of lifting a Europa trophy will live in the memories of every wolves fan forever
Come on you wolves
Thomas many thanks for all of the above. I think I followed most of it. Whatever, so many of those teams are legends of European football across the decades. As a Wolves supporter of very many years it’s exciting just to consider being in the final stages of a competition with them.
Seeing it all laid out shows how difficult it will be to progress all the way. But it can be done! Just loving it however it goes!
Thank you for the thorough briefing Thomas. My nerves are fraying already! Best we don’t show this to Nuno as it might give him nightmares. And, we all want Champions League next season as well. Gluttons for punishment!
Whatever way we look at this, it’s a free hit. I see we’re 7/10 on with BetVictor to win on Thursday. Mean odds I think as it’s a far tougher game for us than the odds suggest.
Well, we’re in it to win it. Fulham went all the way to the final once. Whether we crash and burn or even win the bloody thing, we need to recruit, recruit, recruit next season. We can’t sit around with a small squad and yet be pretenders for top four/six in future.
Congratulations to Fulham on winning the tactical battle against the favourites Brentford last night. Scott Parker is a man on the up. A future Spurs manager?
I got so excited a few games before the end of the season I went as far as looking at all the other team’s fixtures and convincing myself we were gonna finish top 4.
Lesson learned.
I’m going to eschew this Nuno found optimism and revert back to the old pessimist who endured the reigns of such luminaries as Hoddle, Lee, and Solbakken. We’re going to lose tomorrow, and the Whatsapp footy group will be muted for a week (I’ve been giving it the big one all year – retribution will be merciless)
UTW.
as shown in his subsequent career, Solbakken wasn’t so bad. It was the players we had at the time who weren’t up for it.
He did have a rotten time with injuries.
Give up worrying about the quality of the opposition leave that to Nuno
These are the games we want and hope to get more of in the future
Bring it on
Brilliant summary Thomas, puts our challenge right in perspective-to quote Nuno- Tough game. Can Nuno rejuvenate tired brains for this one? They are all desperate for a well deserved rest. However, many would willingly take our place in this company. Heart says yes if every man plays to his capacity. We will be underdogs if we get past Thursday and may surprise a few. COYW
I think a 2-2 draw will be the best result.
Why’s that Tim? Do you have greek ancestry?
No, I just think the team should bow out gracefully so I don’t have to hear Nuno complain about how the players didn’t get enough rest for another year.
Why not support another team? Liverpool seem to be doing well. You can listen to Klopp then.
Not sure this (resting players) has been a single complaint from Nuno…
Hey, we have been done over by VAR many times and I don’t think he has complained about that at ALL either…
We have a small squad, He has made do with that Also, I mean no complaints there either.
Covid Struck – He didn’t complain once, Said he spent time with family and now football is back.
My only point here is you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.
Maths not your strongest subject Tim?
Behave, you bad lad…
Sorry dad….getting withdrawal symptoms….not had a Birra Moretti for some time now
Birra Moretti? Gnats pee!
Tim’s maths looks ok to me because if we drew 2-2 we would now out gracefully as he suggests because we’d lose on the away goals rule.
Thing is though, we’ll draw 0-0 and go through on the away goals rule.
Well we enjoyed it mate even if its gnats pee to a connoisseur. As for Tim’s maths I posted that nearly 3hours before he posted his reasoning and I’m still amazed by his reply that he doesn’t want us to progress further and that Nuno moans about about not getting enough rest…its just not in his nature.
I personally want us to go all the way as do most Wolves fans, whether we play Liverpool or Luton I want us to win not draw especially if it knocks us out of a tournament .
The Tim we know and love shows his true nature again.
Welcome back.
You too are a bad boy Clive xxx
Who remembers this?
Awesome day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu825zHTBdg
A few familiar faces at the start of that clip.
And a familiar back of a head as well I think.
Yeah, Bedders, Stu, Mike etc etc and me and the tall guy to my left is my son in law. Awesome day, forever remembered.
Thanks Steve.
Great day, I will never ever forget my Grandson’s face as the second one hit the back of the net.
When I read a piece like yours Thomas, it gets me wondering what the other teams bloggers would write about us in their pre-match essays.
Unknown quantity? No European experience? Minnows, perhaps?
Whatever they write, they would be unwise to underestimate us simply because we’re not part of the regular Champions/Europa League qualifiers group. We don’t have many household names in our team, barring Joao and Rui, and many of our players are young and new to European competition. But if, and it’s a big ‘if’, we play like we all know we can, we can win this thing.
First hurdle are Olympiacos, who were mightily impressive in the first leg and will be extremely difficult to overcome now they return to having eleven on the pitch. But now all other distractions have gone, all other avenues to Europe next year are closed to us, I can see a new, revitalised Wolves taking the game by the scruff of it’s neck and savaging them unmercifully.
Hope so anyway.
….. not part of the regular Champions/Europa League qualifiers group….. yet!!!!
Getting past Olympiacos is, I agree, not a simple undertaking. But it is one in which we can succeed.
There is only one route left to European football next season so I hope Nuno and the boys give it absolutely everything. If they do and if we fall short then I can ask no more of them.
Come on lads let’s do it.
Attached is a clip from a Daily M ail interview with Matt Doherty, really good insight into the lad himself and the teams feelings on results since the lockdown. Also a piece from Dendonker on Wolves website saying exactly the same about how the lads were devastated with the last three games.
So if the lads were feeling frustrated and devastated by the last three results, can I ask that some bloggers start cutting fellow contributors some slack. They do not hate Nuno, or think he should go, they do not hate Wolves or want to change teams due to poor form and they are not fair weather fans. It’s a blog where we invite everyone to give their views and thats all they do, they are not committing high feckin treason, they’re just giving their opinion.
I do like Doherty’s comments on living with a family in Bury when he first came over and how they’ve stayed best friends. The mate is a huge Wolves fan and we bump into him all over Europe, and home and away over here. He also gives us info on team selection. 🙂
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-8593207/The-Iron-Man-Wolves-flying-machine-Matt-Doherty-emerges-bunker-target-Europa-League-glory.html
I see the Mighty Arsenal have just announce redundancies for commercial and admin: staff………shame on you….£350.000 a week they are paying ONE player wh has agreed along with the rest of his team mate to take a 12 per cent cut……….how is he going to cope.
If there supporters don’t take the. Club to task like Liverppool fans did we’ll……there even lower in my astamation than ever.
Shamefull absolutely shameful….!
Sunday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.
That says it all.
Sez what?
You can’t remember the other three days of the week?
Those are your days off?
Those are the days you have to do community service?
You can’t spell the other three days?
Come on Timmo, put us out of our misery!
And by the way, how are Julian, Dick, Anne and George?
Our older listeners will know to whom I am referring of.
I can’t stop laughing now!! Love it!
Awesome, in fact GENIUS.
Woof woof!
Given that our form has been pretty abysmal since the restart although masked by a couple of fairly useless opponents, I think we might be in trouble tomorrow.
Still I hope for the best.
There’s no reason why we can’t beat any team on any day if we play to our best. So just need the lads to play their very best. Easy.
Wolves win.
No reason we can’t win this but if I am honest I don’t think we will. I fear an outcome similar to the England v Croatia semi final. Take the lead, miss a couple of chances and fall foul to a late late winner.
My dream is that we win by playing well and get a brief chance to see what we missed out on when Lopetegui chose the Spanish national managers role instead of coming here.
It has been a long old season and these willing horses are giving everything they have but I just doubt they have enough in their tank to finish the job.
If we had come into this tournament at the same time as Arsenal and Man Utd we would have won it and finished in top five.
Nuno is a genius and I think there will be some fine-tuning for next season.
What a great year it has been.
don;t mind if we play crap….just want to mix with the other 7 teams in Germany
1-0 via a dubious penalty will do it for me
UTW
Socrates was a Greek philosopher. He had a big beard. Socrates was also a chain smoking mid fielder who played for Brazil. And how are they linked? Well they both had a pet cat called Warren. Probably. But whether they had a cat called Warren or not doesn’t really matter. Our very own philosopher with a big beard who hasn’t got a cat called Warren will be the master mind of tonight’s victory. Of course his anxiety soothed by knowing the clowns of Stockley Park are not going to take it all away again. My understanding is the bloke on VAR tonight is Wolfgang von Wolf from Wolfsburg. It can only mean one thing. A 3-1 victory to me babbies. WWFC 3 Oll imp e argos 1.
Not a single bud or bloom on my Molineux rose – doesn’t augur well! Then again, there were 3 blooms on it for the Chelsea game, so what does it know?! Thanks for another great season, lads – stick together, the glory will be yours!
Get rid of our tainted officials and here is the difference. Fine margins.
Like I said……… corrupt no way that offside is given in Prem v manure. Say what you like.
We all love VAR and Ar
VAR and Ar and Ar and Ar
We all love VAR
Would feel happier with the Donk in midfield too.
Just been announced, Wolves ground staff watered the pitch with WD40, arses to be kicked big style if they can stand up for the run up.
We are playing a Stoke/Brentford/Sunderland hybrid. David Attenborough would f**kin love it.
Magnificent lads. What a gritty display. Cant help thinking if we would have had Stockley Park in charge a different outcome. We deserve a MASSIVE break. Nuno GOD.
Great result great resiliance……….off to Gremany.
Wot is your name……….don’t tell him Pike !
Well done me babbies. Work hard and you get the rewards.
Happy as a happy thing just now. I was wondering what happened to Adama at the start of the second half as he appeared to have switched off totally and was going for nothing. Or was that just me. He was subbed soon thought so maybe there was an issue.
Oh, and welcome back Tim. Missed you.
That was horrible.
I hated every minute.
Know what you mean Prawny. Genuinely I thought my heart might give up. Don’t think I can keep doing this.
We were battered. Thank the footballing gods for Rui, and that they did n’t have a half decent striker.
Well I’ve calmed down a bit. Here we have the classic ‘well we battled hard and deserved the win’. Yes. But we also had a massive call with the offside. Great. We also had massive calls go against us Roll with it. Wolves ay we. And still say we would be in top 4 if not for dodgy/marginal decisions which didn’t go against anyone else. But there you go. Millimetre here. Millimetre there. Fine lines.