Pedro Neto's strike earns Europa League draw for Wolves against Olympiakos
It was a case of silence and stalemate for Wolves as they emerged from Olympiakos’s quietened cauldron with a draw and an away goal. The result was decent enough against the team that dramatically beat Arsenal in the previous round, but with their opponents reduced to 10 men with more than an hour remaining they might have taken a firmer grip on the tie. Perhaps, however, their players could be forgiven for approaching the fixture with a certain lack of enthusiasm.
Wolves always thought this game was “an unnecessary risk”, failing in an attempt to convince Uefa to abandon it, while shortly before kick-off Nuno Espírito Santo described the very idea of playing it as “absurd”. None of this will be found in any motivational handbook, and the players often appeared unsure whether this was a game they were determined to win or desperate to avoid.
The famously fiery stands of the Stadio Georgios Karaiskakis were rendered silent by a coronavirus-based supporter ban, but the home side still started on the front foot. Adama Traoré did offer some respite with his runs down the right, but twice his crosses found Diogo Jota competing with the 6ft 3in centre-back Rúben Semedo in the middle, a hopeless mismatch.
But with just under half an hour played that battle swung heavily in Wolves’ favour. A spell of Olympiakos pressure ended with the visitors springing forward on the counter, the referee waved play on when Traoré was brought down in the centre circle and
Raúl Jiménez found Jota, who raced forward, prodded the ball past Semedo and was tripped, just outside the area. There was no intimidatory atmosphere to coax the French official towards leniency – not for nothing had Olympiakos
had to deal with only one sending-off at home in the last five years, and that in 2017 – and Clément Turpin reached immediately for a red.
Wolves’ priority had been to contain and frustrate, and even with a numerical advantage they remained cautious. There were only two shots on target in the first half, both from the home side and neither at all threatening. The But with the home side now committing numbers to defence Wolves took control of possession in the early stages of the second half, a period of apparent comfort if no great attacking ambition that suddenly ended when Olympiakos scored on the break.
Mohamed Camara, for the first and only time in the game, set off on a run down the right before passing infield to Guilherme, whose surge towards the box had left Rúben Vinagre trailing miserably in his wake, and he reached the byline before sending the ball across goal, where Youssef El Arabi, despite Rúben Neves’s last-ditch, desperate attempt to intervene, had a tapin.
Wolves soon resettled and five minutes later Neves’s pass created a fabul
ous opportunity for Raúl Jiménez, who lashed a vicious shot straight into the face of the home goalkeeper, José Sá.
Soon afterwards they were level, with Andreas Bouchalakis twice a villain for Olympiakos. First he fouled Jota 25 yards out, then at the free-kick he strayed from the wall and deflected
Neto’s unpromising low shot into his own net.
The remainder of the match was as meek as the empty stands. “I think both teams, the energy levels were missing someone to push,” said Nuno. “It was not a very good game of football. After they went down to 10 men I think we had control, we had possession of the ball, but we didn’t unbalance them enough to create chances.” His side nevertheless take a slender advantage into next week’s second leg – assuming Uefa consider that match also a necessary risk.