Europa League

We may have been on the receiving end of video technology again, but the better team won the day.

Of that, there can be little argument.

You can’t contest a second half like that in the latter stages of a European competition and expect a different outcome.

There was only one team playing. And they weren’t wearing gold shirts.

No ball retention. No attacking intent. Wave after wave of Sevilla pressure.

Yes, Wolves have built their success around organisation and absorbing the blows, but there has to be an out ball and an appetite to win possession in good areas.

The longer the game went on, the less of that we saw.

It’s nigh on impossible to win any game when you only have the ball 25% of the time.

In mitigation, Sevilla are a great side and the lads are dead on their feet, so pressing higher up the pitch probably wasn’t an enticing prospect. Completely understandable.

And of course, there’s the thorny issue of the penalty and the lack of punishment over blatant encroachment, but like the guys on the pitch, I don’t have the energy to go there again.

We were gypped, so just add it to the list.

More refreshingly, it was interesting to hear Nuno comment afterwards that we ‘mustn’t make the same mistakes as before’ and ‘we need more players to help us’.

A clearer message has never been sent.

This team can already do battle with the best, but to consistently end up on the right side of the results, we need to swell the ranks.

No European football next season will help too of course.

If we can add the bodies and make use of the lighter workload, who knows what could be achieved in the Premier League?

We fret about getting worse, but there’s still every chance Wolves can become even better and make an immediate return to the European stage.

In the here and now, it’s been a great adventure and the team have done us proud.

I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next and as Nuno is more eloquent with his words than I’ll ever be, I’ll steal his best line again.

The future is bright.

UTW.

How are the nerves?

Wolves, as we so often do, did it the hard way.

Olympiakos’ stand-in keeper may have gifted us the opener, but this was anything but plain sailing.

I’m sure that most of you were thinking we’d stepped into the Twilight Zone when VAR intervened on our behalf and denied the visitor’s a deserved equaliser.

Though the incident did little to abate my frustration with the current incarnation of the system, it was pleasant to fleetingly experience the good fortune usually reserved for the Premier League’s beloved Big Six. 

But after that, we were relying on our own defensive excellence to get us through the tie.

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant evening for Doherty or Vinagre, but their three counterparts in the heart of our defence did a wonderful job of keeping the Greeks at bay.

Not to mention Rui Patricio, who arguably turned in his best performance in old gold (or lime green to be precise). 

The Portuguese stopper had to come to the rescue on more than one occasion, repelling a number of clear-cut chances with the sort of airborne agility usually reserved for Clark Kent’s alter ego. 

And let’s not forget Raul Jimenez, who turned in yet another tireless performance up top. 

Regardless of how the result was achieved, we’re in the last 8 of the Europa League.

Just let that sink in for a minute. 

Four years ago, under the not-so-wily management of Walter Zenga, we were contesting a 2-2 draw with Rotherham. 

And now, after three wonderful years of unforeseen progress, we’re two games from our first European final in 48 years.

Can we go all the way? It’s certainly a tough route to the final, starting on Tuesday against serial competition winners Sevilla.

But, as Nuno put it so beautifully, dreaming is for free.

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.

I was proud of the dignified way the Club conducted itself in an ultimately fruitless attempt to have tonight’s game postponed. 

But let’s get this right. Football is insignificant in these unprecedented times. The moment Olympiacos Owner Evangelos Marinakis tested positive for the Coronavirus, UEFA should have postponed the fixture, like the Premier League did with Manchester City v Arsenal. 

It’s farcical that UEFA let any of tonight’s Europa League games go ahead despite a meeting set for Tuesday to discuss what happens next. How does UEFA deem it acceptable to force players to put theirs and their families’ health at risk? 

Well, Lewis Hamilton hit the nail on the head in the build-up to the doomed Australian Grand Prix: “Cash is king.”

But, the show did go on in Greece tonight, so some words should be dedicated to the actual football in a bizarre and sad behind closed doors setting.

It’s a minor miracle Wolves came away with a positive result and hold the advantage thanks to an away goal, which is the most important thing to take away from Greece.

It didn’t make for pretty viewing from a Wolves perspective though. Nuno will argue that we were organised and saw off Olympiacos’ early threat, but our inability to keep hold of the ball set the tone for a rather lacklustre performance. As good as our defensive shape is, we tend to let teams on to us too much, and it’s hard to get anything flowing in attack.

Even Rúben Semedo’s red card failed to spark Wolves into life, and I was struggling to see a way back for Nuno’s men after Youssef El-Arabi’s opener. 

Thank heavens for Neto’s deflected free-kick, because we didn’t look like scoring otherwise.

The service into Jota, Jimenez and Traore wasn’t brilliant but the times when they did get on the ball in the final third, their end product wasn’t good enough.

There’s a mixture of frustration at not putting a 10-man Olympiacos to bed, but relief that we take a slight advantage into the second leg at Molineux – when and if that encounter is played.

The football was largely forgettable, but the experience will live forever.

Travelling to Barcelona to watch Wolves play a game of football was always going to be a surreal journey, with League One reminiscing and head-scratching aplenty as we skip around Las Ramblas.

A far cry from us shuffling down Waterloo Road in arctic conditions on any given Saturday afternoon in a seemingly endless tale of Championship failure.

A dose of Spanish sun to warm the soul must be the perfect present for years of travail and in going along for the ride, I only wish every fan could have been here.

If this fixture didn’t quite bring out the best in our players, it did our fans, who reminded me why we’re such a special bunch and deserving of times like these.

From the airport to the bars around the city – and everywhere in between – a feeling of camaraderie enveloped me like medicine for my occasionally troubled soul.

Humble, humorous fans in their droves, making me smile for what felt like the duration of the trip, mingling comedy with courtesy with a sprinkling of Black Country wit.

I’d wager that each and every one of us cherished the experience more for the wrinkles etched through years of disappointment. For certain, none of us took a single step for granted as we know events like these don’t come around often.

I just wish every one of the Wolves brethren were present, as they deserved to feel this too.

Maybe this was all part of the plan, when false dawns and laughing stocks were defined by gold and black?

It bloody chafed at times, didn’t it? But throw those curtains wide my friends. One day like this a year has seen me right.

Clutching Chicken Tikka wraps in one hand, polishing Sir Jack’s bronzed shoe for good luck with the other, those befuddled Espanyol fans must have wondered what world they’d entered.

Swapping paella for pork scratchings and La Rambla for the ring road, a parallel universe might have felt about right.

If it didn’t before kick-off, then it must have come the 52^nd minute when Ruben Neves transported us back to the Land of Milk and Honey with one of those sweet, sweet strikes belonging of another paradigm.

Cooing the ball from the chill Black Country air onto the cushion of his boot, our hypnotist stopped all the clocks with his tuneful right Tiempo, whistling the ball through the night sky into the bosom of the South Bank net. It was such a beautiful moment that if you stared to long, you’d probably break down and cry.

That sweet child of ours; displaying enough grace to paint a picture and enough brute force to collectively uppercut those Espanyol fans at the same time.

Once we were brought back down to earth again, our hearts were full and Espanyol’s were broken and our minds drifted back to that crazy Championship year – signature Neves moment v Derby and all. Our team seemed to take a leaf out of their predecessor’s book, blitzing the opposition with a lethal power surge to kill the game off like we used to so often, having rope-a-doped them onto us for a deceiving passage of play.

Following Ruben’s otherworldly effort, Diogo Jota cashed in with a near post finish and with fans thinking ahead to those lagers in Barca (while the Albion folk are back home?!), they could soon contemplate an even sweeter taste, with a sublime Jota finish to completely kill the tie less than 15 minutes later – completing a hat-trick after first half strike.

A four goal lead means that those lucky souls on the planes to Spain can indulge in the most comfortable manner possible with little to worry about but the price of the average Estrella.

It will sure look good when sipped in Catalonia’s gothic surrounds, which was meant to be the most stunning vision of all…

…Until a Thursday night in Wolverhampton when Ruben painted another masterpiece.