Wolves 1-0 Olympiakos (agg: 2-1): Europe League last 16, second leg – as it happened

Raul Jimenez’s nonchalant early penalty and some terrific goalkeeping from Rui Patricio put Wolves into their first European quarter-final since 1972

10.00pm BST

Peep peep! Wolves are into a European quarter-final for the first time since 1972. They will play Sevilla, Europa League royalty, in a one-legged tie on Tuesday. Raul Jimenez’s early penalty gave them victory on the night, though they had to withstand a heap of pressure from a relentless Olympiakos side. The man of the match was Rui Patricio, who made two fine saves and radiated calm on a very tense night.

9.57pm BST

90+4 min Jimenez is booked for fouling yer man.

9.57pm BST

90+3 min Wolves are three minutes away from a quarter-final against Sevilla.

9.56pm BST

90+1 min Fortounis beats Dendoncker twice on the left of the area and drifts a lofted ball across the goal. Eventually it reaches Elabdellaoui, well beyond the far post, and he spanks a half-volley into the side netting from a very tight angle.

9.54pm BST

90 min Six big ones.

9.54pm BST

90 min Jimenez wastes some time by the corner flag. I’d imagine there will be at least five minutes of added time.

9.53pm BST

89 min Boly is going to continue.

9.51pm BST

88 min Boly is sitting up, though he still looks pretty vacant.

9.50pm BST

87 min Allain and Boly are receiving treatment after a collision as they challenged for a high free-kick. Allain is up on his feet; Boly is still down.

9.49pm BST

86 min A quiet couple of minutes, which is just what Wolves needed.

9.47pm BST

83 min Joao Moutinho, given far too much space 22 yards from goal, clips a shot over Allain that brushes the roof of the net.

9.46pm BST

82 min Cafu has replaced Guilherme for Olympiakos.

9.45pm BST

81 min: Fine save from Rui Patricio! That was the closest Olympiakos have come to an equaliser in the second half. Tsimikas moved into space down the left and clipped a terrific cross into the middle, where the unmarked Hassan powered a downward header towards goal from eight yards. Rui Patricio dived to his left to palm it away.

9.44pm BST

80 min Hassan’s overhead kick from the edge of the area is easily saved by Rui Patricio. On a tense night, he has been an oasis of calm.

9.43pm BST

79 min: Jota misses a great chance! That should have been it for Olympiakos. Ba played a dreadful backpass towards the keeper Allain that was intercepted by Jota. He tried to force the ball past Allain, who spread himself to make a vital save. At the other end, Guilherme whips a drive onto the roof of the net from 20 yards. This is so tense.

9.40pm BST

76 min If Wolves get through, it will be the definition of a hard-fought victory. They’ve been on the back foot for the best part of an hour.

9.39pm BST

75 min Cisse is booked for something or other.

9.36pm BST

72 min El-Arabi gets ahead of Coady at the near post but can’t make proper contact with a right-wing cross. Apparently Podence was booked for leaving the field in a manner that offended the referee, which means he will miss Tuesday’s quarter-final against Sevilla if Wolves get there.

9.35pm BST

71 min Another Wolves change. Daniel Podence, who won the penalty that put Wolves ahead, is replaced by Leander Dendoncker. That cautious change - I’d imagine Wolves will switch to 3-5-1-1 - is a reflection of Olympiakos’s dominance.

9.34pm BST

70 min Allain makes a good save from Podence, though the flag had gone up for offside.

9.31pm BST

67 min It’s getting desperate out there. Fortounis beats two players on the left side of the box and crosses low to El-Arabi, who turns Coady smartly on the six-yard line but then slips and hits his shot into the side netting at the near post.

9.30pm BST

65 min Ahmed Hassan replaces Camara for Olympiakos. Moments later, El-Arabi’s speculative backheader from Valbuena’s inswinging free-kick is easily held by Rui Patricio.

9.29pm BST

63 min This is a good spell for Wolves. When a corner is half cleared, Vinagre sprays a long angled pass over the top of the defence to Podence. He cushions a first-time volley back to Jota, whose fierce snapshot takes a deflection and flies wide of the far post. The stretching Boly almost diverted it into the net.

9.27pm BST

62 min Coady, in the centre circle, sweeps a stunning disguised pass inside the full back for Doherty, whose cutback is put behind for a corner.

9.27pm BST

62 min: Good save by Allain! Neves nicked the ball 35 yards from goal and found Jota, who zoomed forwards and swept a rising shot from the edge of the area that was tipped over at full stretch by Allain. It was central enough for it to be a relatively comfortable save.

9.24pm BST

61 min See 50 min.

9.23pm BST

59 min Olympiakos have dominated this game since around the 20th minute. The only slight plus point for Wolves is that Rui Patricio hasn’t had that much to do. But it feels like an equaliser is in the post.

9.21pm BST

56 min Adama Traore is replaced by the out-of-form Europa League golden boy Diogo Jota.

9.20pm BST

55 min The more I see a replay of that El-Arabi chance, the more I think it should have been a penalty. Boly didn’t apply that much force with a forearm into the back, but the force he did apply stopped El-Arabi getting a clear header at goal from six yards.

9.19pm BST

54 min A brilliant lofted cross from the right by Elabdellaoui finds El-Arabi, who is eased into the ball by Boly and flicks his header well off target as a result. El-Arabi wanted a penalty; VAR gave it a cursory lock. Boly knew what he was doing, though I’m not sure there was enough for a penalty.

9.17pm BST

53 min Olympiakos are starting to pin Wolves back in their half. Camara zips between Traore and Neves before being well challenged on the edge of the area by Boly.

9.14pm BST

50 min I’ll tell you one thing: the next goal is a big one. You don’t get that level of insight elsewhere.

9.14pm BST

49 min Nothing much to report in the first few minutes of the second half.

9.11pm BST

46 min Two half-time changes for Olympiakos. Giorgos Masouras and Andreas Bouchalakias have been replaced by Kostas Fortounis and Lazar Randjelovic.

9.09pm BST

46 min Olympiakos begin the second half.

8.55pm BST

Half-time listening

Related: The Europa League is go - Football Weekly

8.55pm BST

Peep peep! Raul Jimenez’s nonchalant early penalty has put Wolves ahead, but the last 25 minutes of the first half were pretty uncomfortable and Olympiakos would have equalised had that pesky VAR not spotted an excessively enthusiastic armpit in the build-up to Mady Camara’s apparent equaliser.

8.51pm BST

45+6 min Moutinho is still lying on his back, though he is conscious. I suppose Wolves can make a decision during the half-time break as to whether he can continue.

8.49pm BST

45+4 min Ba is booked for flattening Joao Moutinho. It was a clash of heads, in fact, and Moutinho is receiving treatment.

8.47pm BST

45+1 min Four minutes.

8.46pm BST

45 min Tsimikas is booked for fouling Traore in his follow through after originally winning the ball. The resulting free-kick eventuallyleads to a sweet long-range strike from Neves that is claimed at the second attempt by Allain.

8.45pm BST

44 min Wolves are hanging on for half-time. Camara picks up a loose ball on the edge of the D, loses Ruben Neves and drives a few yards wide of the far post.

8.42pm BST

41 min A ludicrous attempt from Raul Jimenez, who tries a rabona lob from 20 yards. He caught it pretty well but it drifted over the bar.

8.40pm BST

39 min This definitely isn’t a false sense of dominance; Olympiakos are well on top just now, and Wolves urgently need to hear three shrill peeps.

8.39pm BST

38 min Joao Moutinho is booked for this or that, I forget which, and then Masouras has a long-range shot comfortably saved by Rui Patricio.

8.37pm BST

36 min Another chance for Olympiakos. Valbuena’s wicked free-kick from deep on the right was flicked on at the near post by El-Arabi and just evaded the stretching Cisse at the far.

8.35pm BST

34 min This is Olympiakos’s best spell, at least in terms of sustained possession. That can sometimes give you a false sense of control against Wolves, such is their threat on the break.

8.32pm BST

What a bonus for Wolves. El-Arabi’s armpit was offside.

8.31pm BST

It’s very tight, but I think he was onside. The check is taking an age...

8.30pm BST

There’s a VAR check for offside against El-Arabi...

8.30pm BST

That was a pretty soft goal from Wolves’ point of view. El-Arabi broke into space down the right before looking up and angling the ball back to the unmarked Camara on the edge of the box. He opened his body to sidefoot a first-time shot that hit the sliding Boly and ricocheted into the roof of the net. I think it was going in anyway.

8.29pm BST

Olympiakos equalise out of nothing!

8.28pm BST

26 min Jimenez picks out Ruben Neves, whose stinging shot from 18 yards hits Cisse and spins behind for a corner.

8.27pm BST

23 min Traore gets in a good crossing position only to be penalised for fouling Masouras, even though he didn’t. “Sometimes he gets unfairly punished because he’s physical,” says the BT Sport co-commentator Karen Carney. “There were two players trying to sandwich him there. What was he meant to do?” Carney never appears on the list of best pundits, at least not the ones I’ve read, but I think she’s terrific - insightful and economical, which is a pretty rare combination.

8.21pm BST

19 min: Good save from Rui Patricio! That was terrific play from Olympiakos. The left-back Tsimikas fed the ball into Masouras and kept running. Masouras lobbed the ball neatly over his head, into the path of Tsimikas, who humped the bouncing ball and lashed it bouncing ball towards the near post from 15 yards. Rui Patricio flew to his right to make a fine one-handed save.

8.19pm BST

18 min Olympiakos have their first half-chance. Camara, on the right, curls over a very deep cross that is headed wide from 10 yards by Masouras.

8.17pm BST

17 min Jonny limps down the tunnel to be replaced by Ruben Vinagre. I suspect that’s the end of his 2019-20 season.

8.16pm BST

16 min Jimenez has a goal disallowed for a foul on Allain, who dropped a looping header at his feet. There wasn’t much in it but Saiss did lead with his arm, and keepers usually get a free-kick in such situations. He’s a bag of nerves, though.

8.15pm BST

14 min Jonny is struggling. There was nobody near him when he went down, and it looks like a muscle injury.

8.13pm BST

12 min I know we all like to sneer at the Europa League, but this mini-tournament should be all sorts of fun. Inter v Leverkusen is a belter of a quarter-final; Sevilla v Wolves, should it come to pass, wouldn’t be far behind.

8.10pm BST

10 min Olympiakos had to score anyway, though now it’s to take the tie to extra-time rather than go through.

8.09pm BST

Jimenez scores the penalty in style, sitting Allain down before passing the ball slowly in the other direction.

8.08pm BST

PENALTY TO WOLVES! The keeper Bobby Allain, making his European debut, has had a shocker. He miscontrolled a backpass and then, in an attempt to redeem the error, needlessly shoved Podence over near the left edge of the box. Oh, Bob.

8.07pm BST

7 min I think Olympiakos will be happy if it’s 0-0 at half-time, in accordance with the Anfield 89 principle. And they only need one goal rather than two.

8.06pm BST

6 min I’m not sure my email is working either. Those problems aside, this is a triumph for the Guardian’s sports coverage!

8.05pm BST

5 min It’s been a quiet start aside from that Jimenez half-chance. There’s no clock on the BT Sport coverage, which is a bit of a nightmare, but I can confidently assert that we are still in the first half.

8.02pm BST

2 min An early half chance for Jimenez. A ball forward was blocked by Joao Moutinho and bounced up nicely for Jimenez, whose driven lob from 20 yards drifted wide of the far post.

8.01pm BST

1 min Peep peep! Wolves, in gold, kick off from right to left. Olympiakos are in red-and-white stripes.

7.54pm BST

The winners of this tie will play Sevilla in the quarter-finals on Tuesday. Sevilla have beaten Roma 2-0 in their one-legged quarter-final. Bayer Leverkusen have beaten Rangers 1-0 to complete a comfortable 4-1 win aggregate victory. They meet Internazionale in a humdinger on Monday.

7.44pm BST

Some pre-match reading

Related: Champions League incentive will drive Wolves on against Olympiakos

Related: Pedro Martins: the slayer of Arsenal who now has sights set on Wolves | Will Unwin

7.10pm BST

Wolves (3-4-2-1) Rui Patricio; Boly, Coady, Saiss; Doherty, Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho, Jonny; Traore, Podence; Raul Jimenez.
Substitutes: Ruddy, Sondergaard, Jordao, Pedro Neto, Gibbs-White, Diogo Jota, Ruben Vinagre, Campana, Dendoncker, Kilman, Buur, Marques.

Olympiakos (4-3-3) Allain; Elabdellaoui, Ba, Cisse, Tsimikas; Bouchalakis, Guilherme, Camara; Valbuena, El Arabi, Masouras.
Substitutes: Tzolakis, Fortounis, Lovera, Cafu, Papadopoulos, Torosidis, Xentidis, Gaspar, Martinis, Sourlis, Randjelovic, Ahmed Hassan.

6.44pm BST

Hello. If ever a football match deserved a crowd, it’s this one. This should have been a mighty European night at Molineux, with Hi Ho Wolverhampton thundering around the ground before kick-off. It’s still a huge game, a chance for Wolves to reach their first European quarter-final since 1972; it just won’t be as raucous as we’d like.

Wolves go into the game as decent favourites to qualify. They drew the first leg 1-1 back in March, a good scoreline but one that comes with a stick-or-twist dilemma. Wolves know that a 0-0 draw would put them through on away goals, though it shouldn’t unduly affect a team who are at their best on the counter-attack, even at home.

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Published on August 06, 2020 14:01
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