The first win of the Bruno Lage era was a handsome one and saw Wolves book their place in the third round of the Carabao Cup at Nottingham Forest’s expense. Romain Saiss bagged the first goal under the new head coach on 58 minutes and the goals flowed from there.
After the Moroccan’s header, Daniel Podence bagged on his first outing of the season, before Francisco Trincao netted for the first time in old gold. The City Ground’s packed away end was sucking the ball in each time, none more so than for the fourth, when Academy graduate Morgan Gibbs-White bent home to complete the scoring.
The opening period at the City Ground followed a similar theme to Wolves’ showings against Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur however, crucially, the scores remained goalless. Lage will have been scratching his head wondering how, however, after 11 chances came and went for the old gold.
Nobody enjoyed better sights of goal than the returning Podence, making his first appearance under Lage. The Portuguese was denied by a fine Ethan Horvath save, a goalline clearance and the foot of the Forest post during a lively opening period.
Fabio Silva and Saiss also headed presentable openings wide during Wolves’ dominance, which saw Joao Moutinho pull the strings in the middle and Rayan Ait-Nouri provide a constant threat down the left, but despite that, and 74 percent possession, that goal eluded them.
Half-time | Forest 0-0 Wolves
The dominance continued after the break, but thankfully, Wolves’ barren run in front of goal didn’t. Two goals in the space of three second-half minutes saw Lage’s men enjoy themselves and kill off the tie in terms of a contest.
First, after a patient build-up from a corner, Ki-Jana Hoever whipped a delightful cross onto the head of Saiss, who diverted the ball in off the underside of the crossbar. Then, with the away end still celebrating, Silva broke down the right, looked up and picked out Podence, who was composed enough to pick his spot and fire into the bottom corner.
From that point, there was no way back for Forest, who were grateful to their goalkeeper Horvath, who produced incredible saves to stop Silva’s shot on the turn and another Saiss header from point blank range.
However, in the final five minutes Wolves found yet another gear. First, Silva slipped in Trincao who was composed to bend round Horvath for the third. Then, with Forest visibly wilting, Gibbs-White compounded their misery by curling home an impressive fourth, as Wolves booked their place in the next round.
Full-time | Forest 0-4 Wolves
Forest | Horvath, Back, Fernandes, Harbottle, Richardson, Fornah, Colback, Hammond (Mighten 73), Garner (Cafu 73), Konate, Grabban (Taylor 61).
Unused subs | Smith, Lawrence-Gabriel, Figueiredo, Carvalho.
Wolves | Ruddy, Hoever, Kilman, Coady, Saiss, Ait-Nouri (Traore 82), Moutinho, Dendoncker, Gibbs-White, Podence (Trincao 66), Silva.
Unused subs | Sondergaard, Semedo, Neves, Cundle, Jimenez.
