- Graeme Bryce
WOLVES romped to their biggest ever away win in Europe – but still couldn’t find it in their hearts to give debut boy Patrick Cutrone a welcoming gift!
The £16million signing from AC Milan came on for Diogo Jota to stretch his legs for the final half hour of this cushiest of wins and earned a stoppage time penalty when he was downed by Sergiy Shevchuk.
Once Cutrone gets to know Nuno Espirito Santo a little better he will understand why Neves didn’t dare defy his disciplinarian boss – and to his credit, Patrick didn’t throw a Paddy!
Pyunik had never progressed beyond the third qualifying round in Europe and this isn’t going to be their year either.
Wolves virtually guaranteed their place in the final qualifying round – where Italian aces Torino or Shaktyor Soligors of Belarus lie in wait.
Once Nuno’s weary Wanderers shook the early lethargy from their legs they realised the Armenians were all style with very little substance – at both ends of the park.
Defensively, Pyunik were so naïve Wolves picked them off whenever they bothered to slip into third gear.
The Armenians committed suicide after 29 minutes when Antonio Stankov’s cocky attempt to clip the ball to Artur Miranyan was gobbled up Willy Boly who headed clear.
Diogo Jota’s sublime pass on the spin found Matt Doherty surging forward on the overlap and the Irishman made a mug of goalie Andrija Dragojevic, beating him at his near post to nab his 22nd goal for the Old Gold.
Nuno’s boys promptly put the tie to bed, adding a second three minutes before the break when Ruben Vinagre robbed Simonyan and surged forward to leave Pyunik’s defence hopelessly outnumbered.
Vinagre fed Jota who unselfishly played in Raul Jimenez and the Mexican toyed with Dragojevic before ruthlessly ramming the ball home off the underside of the ‘keeper’s crossbar.
Any hopes Pyunik had of regrouping during the break vanished when Jimenez ran on to a Jota pass and casually stroked the ball beyond Dragojevic 32 seconds after the restart.
Not bad going, considering the home side had kicked off the second period!
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9684663/pyunik-wolves-europa-league/