Ruben Neves insists his latest wonderstrike against Espanyol does not even make his top THREE goals for Wolves
RUBEN NEVES reckons his Europa League wonderstrike was only the FOURTH best goal of his Wolves career.
The Portugal midfielder goes into tomorrow’s Molineux clash with Norwich insisting he can do even better.
Neves found the net with a brilliant volley against Espanyol on Thursday night to all but book Wolves a quarter-final spot ahead of next week’s second leg in Barcelona.
It meant Neves has scored 15 goals since arriving to play under boss Nuno Espirito Santo - and 12 of them have been from outside the area, with the other three from the penalty spot.
But while his lasted thunderbolt earned more rave reviews, Neves does not even include it in his top three.
The 22-year-old said: “To be honest, for me, I think that would come in fourth place.
“The three above? The goals against Derby County and Sheffield United at home, and Sheffield Wednesday away - that was a really special goal because of the way I hit the ball.“
And Neves revealed why he never scores a scrappy goal from inside the six yard box - because he rarely ventures there.
He added: “It’s about my position on the field. I don’t get inside the box many times, so when I get a chance to shoot outside of the box, I’ll do it.
“That’s why I have 12 goals outside of the area.”
“It’s something I do in training a lot I know I can do it and I know I can do even better.
“Of course, I practise this in training.
“Every chance I have, I practice that part of the game.
“This is important, it’s what can give you the solution,
“And it’s a good solution to have when teams are defending well.
“I’ll keep working on improving on that.
“But it was a special night on Thursday, when I did my first touch, all I thought about was shooting.
“I knew I could score then and help the team to win.”
“But the team did a great job after the first half that was not so good. I’m really proud of everybody.”
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Wolves are pushing for a Champions League place with fifth spot opening up after Manchester City’s two year ban from the competition.
But Neves says Wolves will take extra care against Norwich eve though the Canaries are bottom of the table.
Wolves had to come from behind to win at Carrow Road in December.
Neves added: Norwich are a really tough team. The position they are in does not reflect the quality they have.
“In the away game, if you remember it was a really tough match, we really struggled in the first half.
“We had to adjust something in the second half and fortunately we were able to get the three points, Norwich made that a really hard game for us. But we will have a fantastic atmosphere at home on Sunday.”
