The old gold made it back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time this season, but it was far from straightforward, having been a goal and a man light at the break on the south coast. But after Lopetegui rallied his troops, Wolves responded by dominating the ball, remaining tough to break down and striking when the opportunities arrived, and midfielder Moutinho hailed the “amazing” spirit post-match.
On a big win on the road
“After what happened on the pitch, it’s a great result for us. I think we did a very good game. The spirit of the team is amazing and the players gave 200 per cent because we played against 11 with 10 for a long time.
“Congratulations for all the team for all we did, and we need to continue this because it’s a great win, but we need to continue. This victory is good, but the next game is the most important.”
The full-time whistle scenes 🤌 pic.twitter.com/QCdsgcidOj
— Wolves (@Wolves) February 11, 2023
On always having the belief
“We talked after the first half, the coach told us to believe because it was possible if we stayed organised, we were going to have opportunities and the opportunities we had, we scored, and after we defended very well.
“We knew if we didn’t suffer the second goal, we could do our job, and try to score one and try to go for another one, that’s what the coach said at half-time and that’s what we did, we believed until the end and it’s a great three points for us.”
On the impact Lopetegui is having
“He’s brought confidence and spirit, all the players are here to help the team, not only the starters, and this is important. For the game, he brings intensity, he brings quality, a calmness to play our football because we know we have quality and very good players who want to have the ball and I think we showed it.
“What I saw, we had 59 per cent of the possession against 11 and we had 10 for a long time. He brings a lot of good things for us, and we continue to improve to win more games because we know the position we’re in isn’t our position from what we showed in other years and we’ll try to show it again.”
On Lemina’s first half red card
“I really don’t understand what happened. I think no one understands what happened. For me, Mario suffered three fouls before that, the play continued and after I go to the ref to ask why he didn’t whistle the foul against Mario, Ruben came to know what’s happened and Mario comes just to tell him he was grabbing the shirt, and he turned to him and gave the second yellow card, I really don’t understand.
“Mario is sad because he doesn’t understand too. Now he’s going to have a minimum one game suspension, for us it’s not good, because we need all the players to help us, but that’s it. What I want the people to see is the game the players did to win the game against a good team.”
On Wolves being on the up
“We want more points, we want to go higher, but we think game by game, that’s the most important. We have a difficult game the next one against a team behind us who need points too, but we know our quality, what we can do, and we’re going to try to have another win.”
