Wolves made it three wins from their first three matches of pre-season as they got their Spanish slate of fixtures off to the perfect start with a dominant victory over Deportivo Alaves.
Raul Jimenez opened the scoring as he neatly dispatched his spot kick just after the 20-minute mark, which was added to by Pedro Neto’s low drive before the break. Two half-time substitutes then got their names on the scoresheet as Daniel Podence headed home in the early stages of the half, before Maximilian Kilman scored a stunner as he raced from one end to the other of the pitch and guided a perfectly-placed finish to end the rout.
The match allowed Bruno Lage to take a look at the squad he has at his disposal, while also utilising a rarely seen back four for those in gold and black shirts, as Conor Coady and Willy Boly were given the nod as the two centre-backs.
And after a slow and steady opening few minutes to the contest, with both teams taking time to get their foothold into the match, Wolves began to show glimpses of their quality as they tested the Alaves defence with two quickfire chances.
The first fell to the feet of Jimenez, who was played in behind the defence by Morgan Gibbs-White, and the Mexican tried to return the favour to his attacking teammate, but Abdel Abqar was chasing the academy graduate to make the interception. Moments later, Rayan Ait-Nouri found space down the left, but his cross was just beyond Neto’s reach and was clutched out of the air by goalkeeper Jesus Owono.
Just as Alaves were growing into the game, the referee handed them the hammer blow when Abqar was penalised for a heavy challenge in the penalty area on Neto. The winger was played into acres of pace on the right by a delightfully floated Ruben Neves ball, and as he raced into the area and aimed to let fly at goal, Neto was taken out by the Alaves man.
Up stepped Jimenez from the penalty spot to send Owono the wrong way as his usual stuttered run-up was followed by sliding the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of the net.
The pressure continued to be put on the Alaves defence by the smart movement of the Wolves players, which almost led to a second just after the half hour mark as Leander Dendoncker was picked out in space on the edge of the box by another exquisite pass by Joao Moutinho, but his powerful drive was tipped over the crossbar.
Wolves’ advantage was doubled shortly before half-time through more brilliant passing from the gold shirts. The front three for the evening, Jimenez, Gibbs-White and Neto, all linked up with neat one-touch passing as the latter two combined to devastating effect on the left of the Alaves box for the Portuguese to fire a low drive into the bottom corner and past the fingertips of Owono.
Half-time | Wolves 2-0 Alaves
Lage made two changes to his side for the start of the second period with Dendoncker and Boly being replaced by Podence and Kilman, and it was the former who almost unlocked the Alaves defence in the opening duels, turning neatly just outside the box and playing quick one-two passes with Jimenez, before laying wide to Gibbs-White who was unable to find a gold shirt in the penalty area with a deep cross.
The diminutive Portuguese made an immediate impact as he got on the scoresheet. A ball into the box by Jonny somehow managed to find the head of Podence between the number of bodies crowding the area, but he made no mistake as he directed the ball beyond substitute Alaves stopper Antonio Sivera.
The second-half was not all one-way traffic, with a raft of substitutions disrupting the flow of the game, and Alaves tried to capitalise as they found pockets of space to attack the Wolves defence, but fortunately for Lage’s side, Kilman and Nathan Collins – on for his first appearance in gold and black following his summer move from Burnley – were doing their utmost to keep their opposition at bay.
When the defence were breached, Matija Sarkic in the Wolves goal – making his first senior start in front of the Wolves TV cameras – was on hand to pull off a clever save to top the ball onto the crossbar and stop Alaves getting one back with 15 minutes of the tie remaining.
But with another match coming up in just over 12 hours’ time, Wolves were happy enough to see out the game without picking up injuries, but there was still time for the goal of the evening to be scored by Kilman.
The big defender ran the entire length of the pitch, twisted and turned the Alaves defence one way and the other as he burst into the penalty area, before slotting the ball under Sivera and in off the post to maintain Wolves’ 100 per cent record in pre-season so far.
Full-time | Wolves 4-0 Alaves
Wolves | Sarkic, Jonny (Lembikisa 77), Coady (Collins 59), Boly (Kilman 46), Ait-Nouri (Toti 77), Neves (Griffiths 77), Moutinho (Hodge 77), Dendoncker (Podence 46), Gibbs-White (Corbeanu 59), Jimenez (Cundle 77), Neto (Campbell 77).
Unused subs | Smith, Storer, Mosquera, Bueno, Ronan.
Alaves | Owono, Anderson, Abqar, Lejeune, Duarte, Salva Sevilla, Benavidez, Guridi, Jason, Luis Rioja, Hara.
Subs | Sivera, Adrian, Sedlar, Toni Moya, Sylla, Miguel, Tenaglia, Mendes, Perera, Alkain, Javi Lopez, Abde, Abdallahi, Ropero, Joseda, Balboa.
