Wolves 4 Espanyol 0: Diogo Jota hat-trick and Ruben Neves strike virtually seals place in Europa League last-16
DIOGO JOTA was in hat-trick heaven as he virtually secured Wolves a place in the Europa League last-16 after they served-up a 4-0 thrashing to Espanyol.
And Ruben Neves failed miserably in his latest mission to score a scrappy goal for Wolves – not that anyone in Gold and Black cared.
The midfield genius, with dynamite in his boots, more than made up for it with his latest world class volley, which will go down in Wolves folklore as one of the greatest European goals ever scored at Molineux.
Jota did his bit with his second treble in his last two Europa League outings and on any other night would have been the name on everyone’s lips – yet still and still managed to be overshadowed by his Portuguese buddy’s latest worldy!
Incredibly Neves’ wonder-goal wasn’t even the best in his catalogue of stunning strikes, as anyone who witnessed his screamer of a volley against Derby County in 2018 will testify.
However it broke Espanyol hearts and wiped away any last crumb of resistance the Catalans had left in them, to leave Wolves with one foot in the last 16 of the Europa League ahead of next week’s return trip to Barcelona.
With Portuguese pair Jota and Neves around only a fool would bet against Wolves going all the way with this kind of firepower on tap.
Neves is far from prolific but when he scores you take notice!
Amazingly the little midfielder Neves has now scored 15 goals for Wolves with 12 of them hit from OUTSIDE the penalty box … the other three were penalties!
Wolves were 1-0 up when Adama Traore’;s cross was headed out by Victor Gomez and Neves beat Matias Vargas to the clearance, chested it down and rifled a right-foot rocket into the roof of the net from 22 yards.
From that point on Wolves ran riot against the Spanish strugglers to stamp their passport for the last 16.
Nuno Espirito Santo had warned against complacency ahead of this potential banana skin last-32 tie against La Liga’s Jekyll and Hyde club.
Espanyol’s European pedigree wasn’t in doubt. They were unbeaten in their previous 13 away ties in Europe and had suffered just one defeat against non-Spanish opposition in their last 26 European games.
Domestically however, it’s been a car crash season for the Catalans, who are currently rooted to the foot of La Liga – 20th out of 20 – and on their THIRD coach of a disastrous campaign!
So were the Spanish strugglers wolves in lamb’s clothing – or just lambs to the slaughter?
The first hint came after 15 minutes when Jota grabbed the early breakthrough goal Wolves craved.
Traore played a short corner to Joao Moutinho who whipped over a typically precise delivery to Raul Jimenez who flicked the ball on at the near post.
Jota was quicker to react than his marker Victor Sanchez and hooked a right foot shot which clipped the Espanyol skipper on its way into the net.
Although some agencies tried to ‘credit,’ Sanchez with a no own goal, Jota’s shot went in a good yard inside the far post and took the faintest of touches off his opponent.
The Portuguese predator was in no doubt he had just bagged his seventh Europa League goal of the campaign amid frenzied celebrations from supporters.
Espanyol, roared on by 1,000 travelling fans, did their best to hang in there and came close on three occasions when their Chinese forward Wu Lei had a hat-trick of headers which worried Rui Patricio.
There was also a bizarre scare when Raul Jimenez sliced an attempted clearance high into the air and Patricio had two slapstick attempts to clear before finally getting it right with a stunning one-handed save to deny Ferreyra four yards out!
But this was Wolves night.
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Jota added a third after 67 minutes when Doherty and Dendoncker worked a 1-2 and p[played in the striker who held off Gomez before slamming the ball home.
His hat-trick clinching goal was even better as he ran Espanyol’s defence ragged before drilling a low shot beyond Prieto from the edge of the box.
It was the perfect response to Spanish nutter Ander Iturraspe who somehow escaped a red card just before half-time when he butted Jota, but was only shown yellow.
However it was the Spaniards who left Molineux nursing a massive headache long before full-time.
