Bristol City 1 (Twine 45+1) Wolves 2 (Ait-Nouri 10, R. Gomes 21)
First half goals from Rayan Ait-Nouri and Rodrigo Gomes secured Emirates FA Cup third round progression for Wolves at Bristol City on Saturday lunchtime.
On their first visit to Ashton Gate since 2019, Vitor Pereira’s side were two to the good inside the first 21 minutes, and despite Scott Twine’s free-kick halving the deficit on the stroke of half-time, the Old Gold held on to survive late pressure and put their name in the hat for Sunday’s fourth round draw.
A sweeping Wolves move conjured up the first opening of the game, and it was a big one for the visitors which fell to the right boot of Ait-Nouri. Goncalo Guedes picked out R. Gomes with a ball out to the right and the Portuguese youngster stood up his man before crossing into the danger zone where Ait-Nouri met it only a few yards out, but Max O’Leary stood firm to prevent the opener from point-blank range.
However, the deadlock was broken just minutes later through the same man, who didn’t dwell on his earlier miss. A corner kick was cleared only as far as Joao Gomes who delivered back into the box and there was Ait-Nouri at the back post to head home from close range inside 10 minutes.
Pereira’s side looked to build on their strong start and almost doubled their advantage when Jorgen Strand Larsen broke free and had both R. Gomes and Guedes for company, but the latter was unable to make clear contact on the ball and the Robins were able to comfortably clear the ball off the line.
The Old Gold were in the mood in the south west and made their dominance show as Strand Larsen collected the ball in between the lines and had time and space to swiftly pick out Guedes on the right. R. Gomes made the run inside of his compatriot and received the ball courtesy of a neat Guedes touch before composing himself and dinking into the far corner for two.
Guedes had chances to make it three but couldn’t quite make contact with his first attempt before he received the ball following some strong Strand Larsen hold-up play shortly after, but fired his left footed effort high and wide of O’Leary’s goal. The attacker then looked to take advantage of O’Leary coming out of his goal and despite the stopper being way off his line, Guedes was unable to get the power behind his long-range effort and O’Leary was able to get back in time.
The home side applied some late pressure in their best spell of the first 45 as half-time approached, with Santiago Bueno well-placed to stand firm and make an important block after Anis Mehmeti had cut inside and aimed towards goal.
And to their credit, the Robins halved the deficit inside one minute of additional time following a superbly struck free-kick, with Wolves having taken their foot ever so slightly off the gas. A foul from Hee Chan Hwang just outside of the area gave Twine the opportunity to strike up and over the wall and out of reach of Sam Johnstone who had little chance.
Half-time | Bristol City 1-2 Wolves
Wolves had an early opportunity inside the first three minutes of the second period to regain their two-goal cushion as an overload down the left-hand side saw Ait-Nouri and J. Gomes combine before the latter cut the ball back for Hwang who was in plenty of space, but got underneath the ball and cleared the crossbar.
Persistence then almost paid off for R. Gomes who remained tight to Haydon Roberts who was facing his own goal and Gomes nipped in, before getting the ball out of his feet and so nearly squeezing his effort inside the near post, but the ball cannoned back off the woodwork.
Shortly after, Guedes again took aim from distance and forced O’Leary into a smart save low to his left which was comfortably parried away from any danger.
Wolves had the ball in the back of the net for a third time, however by the time R. Gomes had latched onto Strand Larsen’s flick on and lobbed it over the top of O’Leary, the offside flag was already up to deny the wing-back his second of the afternoon.
Hwang had a good opening with little under 20 minutes remaining when Guedes broke free down the left and crossed with the outside of his boot, but the South Korean fired over after the ball had travelled all the way to the back post.
Hwang was replaced shortly after and his replacement, Pablo Sarabia, almost had the desired impact, taking aim from range and seeing his effort towards the far corner rebound back off the post.
With five minutes of the tie remaining, Bristol City were still in the game at 2-1 and came closer than ever to levelling when Twine’s free-kick was met at the back post by Ross McCrorie who headed back off the underside of the crossbar as Wolves survived a late scare and five minutes of additional time to progress.
Full-time | Bristol City 1-2 Wolves
Bristol City | O’Leary, McCrorie, Mayulu (Wells 77), Twine, Mehmeti (Hirakawa 65), Knight (Bird 65), Vyner, McNally, Tanner, Roberts, McGuane (Earthy 69).
Unused subs | Bajic, Naismith, Sykes, Bell, Morrison.
Wolves | Johnstone, Doherty, Ait-Nouri (Pond 90+6), Bueno, Andre, J. Gomes, Strand Larsen, Hwang (Sarabia 75), Agbadou, R. Gomes (Lima 89), Guedes (Bellegarde 76).
Unused subs | Bentley, Doyle, Forbs, Meupiyou, Chiwome.
Referee | Robert Jones
