The Wolves captain put his side in front with another stunning finish out of the box, and it looked to be a first win of the season for Neves and his teammates, but a late equaliser for the Magpies, left a sour taste in his mouth.
On a draw that feels like a defeat
“Of course, it’s really tough to take. I thought we controlled really well the game in the first-half. Second-half, we knew they would start coming to us, but we controlled everything and they only had chances on the set-pieces, but even on there, we were really good defending.
“They were putting the ball in our box every time, long balls, second balls, and we knew that would be the game in the second-half. But we controlled it well and it was a fantastic shot for them to score a goal.
“Of course, it feels like a defeat in the end, but it’s one more point and I think today we showed a little bit more our attitude and how we want to be in this league.”
On a physical encounter
“It’s the Premier League. Every game is like that, but of course their style of play is like that; long balls and second balls. They’re not a team that wants to have the possession too much, we knew that, we prepared really well for that, but in the end it’s details.
“Maybe the detail when Neto almost broke his leg, and the referee didn’t run to the screen – that’s one detail. One detail when the referee run to the screen when we scored a goal – that’s another detail. A lot of meeting before the season starts, but when you see one of our player almost breaks his leg on a tackle and the referee doesn’t go to the screen, you’re asking a lot of questions because everyone sees on the TV.
“I’ve already watched the images and it’s unbelievable. His foot is on the floor and the tackle is on his shin. It’s really, really dangerous, but they played with 10 men until the end – that’s one of the details that killed us today.”
On Wolves' performance
“It was a different one. I think in the first matches we controlled more of the game with the ball, but today we changed because there was a lot of long balls and a lot of second balls, and we tried to be more compact defending and go on the counter-attack, which we do really well with the fast players up front.
“We did one goal like that, the ref ruled it out, and on the screen he might have seen that Neto was too strong for the defender. But that’s football.”
Poetry in motion 😍 pic.twitter.com/9oWSSZdXNK
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 28, 2022
On his opening strike
“I’m working on that, every single week. We’re working really hard during the week to improve on our finishing and we know we need to score more, we know we need to finish the actions more, and fortunately I scored a goal today, but it doesn’t mean too much because we didn’t get what we wanted from the game.
“Let’s keep going, we don’t have too much time to work now, just rest, and look at the details where we can improve in these two days and go again. There’s no time to think, just try to improve the details that we were missing today as there’s always something to improve.”
On leading the team
“The responsibility is exactly the same as it was before. I want to give my best for the team, for the club, every single time, during games and during training. I want to improve in myself, giving my maximum to help the team and I did it again today.
“All of the team did it, worked really, really hard, and it’s really hard to come out of the game with just one point. But we need to watch what we can improve and go again in the league on Wednesday.”
