Julen Lopetegui made an impression in his first match as he guided Wolves FC into a convincing victory over Gillingham 2-0 to advance in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup. Follow for more european football league news, scores, and updates here!
Substitute Raul Jimenez’s penalty kick at the 77th minute and a late-goal from Rayan Ait-Nouri sealed the Wolves first victory after the World Cup break and handed the first for the former Manager of Real Madrid, Sevilla, and Spain, Julen Lopetegui who is on the mission to remove the struggling Wolverhampton FC from the bottom of the Premier League standing and away from the relegation zone. You may visit us for todays football match updates and news here!
It was really obvious that Wolves performed a bit rusty in the Molineux stadium, partly due to the new era of their football guided by one of the most decorated managers in modern football. In spite of that, Wolves dominated this encounter at the EFL Cup round of 16, but the Gills gave them a hard-time and almost punished the Wolves due to their lazy defense and poor shot selections.
This match gave Lopetegui the idea of what really is the problem of Wolverhampton — scoring goals. This season, the worst team of the Premier League so far registered just eight goals and it was evident against Gillingham – despite having a lot of strikers in their lineup they struggled to break down Gillingham for more than 75 minutes of the match until Hwang Hee-chan fouled that give Jimenez a penalty score.
Lopetegui started his era with a victory!
The EFL Cup is a bright start for the Spanish Manager. His first game with Wolves serves as “a special day” however he admitted that things will be more challenging and tougher.
“For me, it is a very special day and, of course, I am very happy. But above all, it is for the team because we wanted to be in the next round,” he said during the post-match. “We tried to show a lot of the things we have worked on in the last weeks but these kinds of matches are difficult against teams that don’t have anything to lose. We worked with good concentration and focus and in the end we were very happy.”
“Now we have to look forward to the next matches. We have a hard task ahead but we have to be ready for it. We have a lot of things to improve.”
Wolverhampton will next face Everton on Monday, December 26 (Manila Time) as visitors in the Goodison Park with odds in favor of the home team. This will be the real test for Lopetegui, and if he clinches the victory for Wolves in his first Premier League match.
Full-time: Wolves 2 – 0 Gillingham
Wolves: Sa, Semedo, Collins, Kilman, Bueno, Hodge, Neves, Moutinho, Podence, Guedes, Costa
Gillingham: Turner, Alexander, Tutonda, Wright, Ehmer, Williams, O’Keefe, Mandron, Jefferies, Adelakun, Baggott.
Scorers: Raul Jimenez 77’ (P), Rayan Ait-Nouri 90+1’
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