The old gold were trailing 2-0 after 16 minutes at Molineux, and once Nathan Collins was shown a straight red card, the hosts could have crumbled, but continued to remind City they were in a game. Wolves couldn’t find a way through, but continued to display positive signs of the work Lage is doing, and he’s confident the results for their hard work will come soon.
On a tough afternoon
“They just played Wednesday night and they came here and in the first minute they scored, it’s hard to take. Between the first and the second goal we were there, we had the ball, but in a transition, they scored the second goal, but the most important thing is even with problems we had in the beginning, the team had personality to play the game.
“We tried to come back in the second-half with one less man, we tried to have a little bit more ball and I thought we had it. The first 20, 25 minutes we had the ball, and our plan was to score a goal, make it 2-1, and put a bit more pressure in the game. That was our best moment in the game.
“After that, when they scored for 3-0, they finished the game. We came with a good plan to play against them, 11 against 11, but it’s hard when you have one less man. In the end, it’s three points for them and we understand the team are growing up, I think we can see good signals and it’s an opportunity to work.”
On remaining competitive throughout
“We continue to see good signs, that was the most important thing. I don’t believe many teams in the world with ten men can do what we did against this top team. One word for my players, they were brave and confident.
“We made some mistakes, especially the way we conceded the goals and missed the ball to give good chances to score goals, but after that, ten against eleven, there were periods where we were very good. In the second-half we came with a good mentality to continue to play the game we had to play.”
On the red card
“He tried to win the ball, but it was a bad tackle. It’s a red card. Even yesterday I saw a bad tackle in another Premier League game, and nothing happened, but in this situation we can’t say anything, it was certain.
“The most important thing is we tried to come with a good example, with how we started the second-half. Because they played Wednesday night, we tried to put a little bit of pressure, the clock would run for us, but when they scored in the first minute, and everything went against us.”
On Neves slotting into defence
“Ruben played very well, it’s amazing how he can play as a centre back, we put him there five minutes to try to understand, and changed the team to try to keep him as a centre back to have more of the ball. We find a solution inside of the pitch, that’s why we didn’t change any player for another centre back.
“That’s why he’s a top player, he can play there and see the game in front of him. If he didn’t adapt, we’d change. It was OK, the team with ten men had energy, we tried to keep the ball and had good moments, that’s why we came second-half with the same plan, and we started very well.
“We put Pedro and Guedes a little bit wider and more pushed the line of four, and Daniel more near the midfielders to have to ball. We pushed them and tried to play without the feeling that we were one man down.”
On gifting the first goal
“It was a mistake with the ball. We had the ball with us and gave the ball in the middle, and they are very strong. The way they close the team, the way they press with the three midfielders, when they win the ball there, they can find spaces either side and create situations.
“The plan was to understand where they put the three midfielders to press, and we needed to find spaces on the other side. We went against our play, they recovered the ball and scored.”
On his striking options
“We have three strikers with us, but nobody is available. [Costa] to play 15 minutes maybe. In the meantime, we’ll go with Daniel Podence or Hwang.”
