Wolves 0 Rayo Vallecano 1 (Palazon 13)
Wolves’ drew the curtains on pre-season at Molineux with a narrow defeat to Spanish outfit Rayo Vallecano.
With their trip to the Emirates just one week away, Wolves were back home in front of their supporters, but failed to recover from a stunning Isi Palazon strike for Vallecano in the first half.
Hee Chan Hwang and Pablo Sarabia came close either side of that strike, while late in the day the South Korean, who finished the game as captain, headed straight at the goalkeeper when unmarked at the back post.
As has been a theme during pre-season, Rodrigo Gomes was a livewire early on, and he slipped in Hwang with a through ball, but Dani Cardenas flew off his line to save. The winger was in again soon after, with him and Jorgan Strand Larsen charging in on goal, but he couldn’t find the Norwegian with his square ball and Rayo Vallecano survived.
They made the most of that reprieve too, as after some patient buildup please, Palazon found a pocket of space between the Wolves midfield and defence and rifled a clean, left-footed strike out of the reach of Jose Sa from 25 yards out.
Sarabia, fresh from scoring twice against RB Leipzig, curled a deflected effort wide soon after, while the Spaniard fashioned the next opening from a corner, with Toti given two bites of the cherry, but with neither being able to beat Cardenas in goal.
Half-time | Wolves 0-1 Rayo Vallecano
The second period struggled to get going, with the early energy missing from the contest, and Wolves unable to make the most of a series of set piece opportunities. Rayan Ait-Nouri did have a deflected drive fall into the arms of Cardenas, with Wolves trying to up the intensity.
A plethora of second half changes provided minutes to the majority of Gary O’Neil’s squad, but a game already without rhythm wasn’t affected by their introductions.
As the game entered the final ten minutes, Hwang curled over from distance, while substitute Chiquinho also failed to test Cardenas in the Vallecano goal. Goncalo Guedes then passed up the opportunity to equalise when he rounded Cardenas but couldn’t get on the end of his knock ahead.
The biggest chance of the half came with four minutes remaining, when Chiquinho held up a cross for both Hwang and Rodrigo Gomes, but the South Korean could only head straight at the goalkeeper when unmarked at the back post.
At the other end Sa was required to make two late saves, while Wolves couldn’t rally to find an equaliser, but the true test will be at the Emirates next weekend.
Full-time | Wolves 0-1 Rayo Vallecano
Wolves | Sa, Doherty (Lima 68), Mosquera, Toti, Ait-Nouri (Semedo 85), Lemina (Doyle 64), J Gomes (Chiquinho 77), Sarabia (Bellegarde 64), R Gomes, Hwang, Strand Larsen (Guedes 64).
Unused subs | King, Bueno, Dawson.
Rayo Vallecano | Cardenas, Ratiu, Chavarrita, Ciss, Palazon (Eto’o 83), Trejo (Frutos 63), Nteka (Gumbau 83), Mumin, Lopez (Balliu 68), Lejeune, Embarba.
Unused subs | Morro, Hernandez, Diaz, Sias, Fernandez.
