Full time: Wolves 1-0 Olympiakos
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.
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90+4 min Jimenez is booked for fouling yer man.
90+3 min Wolves are three minutes away from a quarter-final against Sevilla.
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.
90 min Six big ones.
90 min Jimenez wastes some time by the corner flag. I’d imagine there will be at least five minutes of added time.
89 min Boly is going to continue.
88 min Boly is sitting up, though he still looks pretty vacant.
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.
86 min A quiet couple of minutes, which is just what Wolves needed.
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.
82 min Cafu has replaced Guilherme for Olympiakos.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
75 min Cisse is booked for something or other.
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.
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.
70 min Allain makes a good save from Podence, though the flag had gone up for offside.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
61 min See 50 min.
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.
56 min Adama Traore is replaced by the out-of-form Europa League golden boy Diogo Jota.
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.
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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.
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.
50 min I’ll tell you one thing: the next goal is a big one. You don’t get that level of insight elsewhere.
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49 min Nothing much to report in the first few minutes of the second half.
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46 min Two half-time changes for Olympiakos. Giorgos Masouras and Andreas Bouchalakias have been replaced by Kostas Fortounis and Lazar Randjelovic.
46 min Olympiakos begin the second half.
Half-time listening
Half time: Wolves 1-0 Olympiakos (agg: 2-1)
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.
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.
45+4 min Ba is booked for flattening Joao Moutinho. It was a clash of heads, in fact, and Moutinho is receiving treatment.
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45+1 min Four minutes.
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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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NO GOAL! Wolves 1-0 Olympiakos
What a bonus for Wolves. El-Arabi’s armpit was offside.
It’s very tight, but I think he was onside. The check is taking an age...
There’s a VAR check for offside against El-Arabi...
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.
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GOAL! Wolves 1-1 Olympiakos (Camara 28)
Olympiakos equalise out of nothing!
26 min Jimenez picks out Ruben Neves, whose stinging shot from 18 yards hits Cisse and spins behind for a corner.
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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.
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.
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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.
17 min Jonny limps down the tunnel to be replaced by Ruben Vinagre. I suspect that’s the end of his 2019-20 season.
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.
14 min Jonny is struggling. There was nobody near him when he went down, and it looks like a muscle injury.
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.
10 min Olympiakos had to score anyway, though now it’s to take the tie to extra-time rather than go through.
GOAL! Wolves 1-0 Olympiakos (agg: 2-1, Jimenez 8 pen)
Jimenez scores the penalty in style, sitting Allain down before passing the ball slowly in the other direction.
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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.
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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.
6 min I’m not sure my email is working either. Those problems aside, this is a triumph for the Guardian’s sports coverage!
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.
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.
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1 min Peep peep! Wolves, in gold, kick off from right to left. Olympiakos are in red-and-white stripes.
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.
Some pre-match reading
Team news
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.
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Preamble
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.
Olympiakos overcame even greater odds in the previous round. They lost the first 1-0 at home to Arsenal, only to then win 2-1 at the Emirates in vaguely hilarious circumstances. They are a handy side, who won the Greek league by 18 points. Wolves should take nothing for granted.
Kick off 8pm.
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