Blackburn Rovers 0 Wolves 2 (J. Gomes 33, Cunha 34)
Wolves produced a dominant performance in the fourth round of the Emirates FA Cup as two goals in less than two minutes were enough to see off Blackburn Rovers.
Joao Gomes opened the scoring just after the half hour mark when he somehow managed to sneak the ball into the net after some neat passing in the final third, before Matheus Cunha found the corner of the goal a minute later when he latched onto a Nelson Semedo through ball to put the result beyond doubt.
Wolves came out of the blocks looking to take a quick lead against their Championship opposition with Cunha having the best opportunity in the opening five minutes, as he twice tested Balazs Toth, but the Blackburn keeper was more than a match.
However, the hosts then began to dominate proceedings with Augustus Kargbo firing just over Sam Johnstone’s crossbar from the edge of the box, before Dominic Hyam had the ball in the back of the net after heading home a free-kick at the far post, but the offside flag was shown against the defender.
Blackburn almost capitalised from a Wolves corner with a quick break after Amario Cozier-Duberry broke quickly over the half way line, but Rodrigo Gomes was able to chase him back into the final third of the pitch before timing his tackle to perfection and winning back possession for his side.
After Cunha twice had chances to open the scoring – curling a corner into the side netting before pulling a simple stop from Toth – Wolves did eventually take the lead, and quickly added a second too.
Firstly, Joao Gomes was found after a piece of fast one-touch passing saw the Brazilian pick up the ball in the Blackburn box before somehow finding a way to squeeze it past Toth.
Within two minutes, the visitors were two to the good. More precise passing which ended with Semedo sliding an inch-perfect pass into the feet of Cunha and with his first touch, the Brazilian forward fired a low drive across the keeper an inside the far post.
Blackburn’s spirits were not dampened by the quick succession of Wolves’ goals, however, and tried to half the deficit through Emmanual Dennis as the deadline day signing from Nottingham Forest headed a corner wide, before pulling a good stop from Johnstone at his near post moments later.
With the game entering added time, Wolves played on with 10-men as Hee Chan Hwang required treatment and went straight down the tunnel after getting back to his feet.
Half-time | Blackburn 0-2 Wolves
The Korean did not return for the second period, and neither did Santi Bueno as the defender was replaced by Matt Doherty, while Pablo Sarabia joined the game in place of Hwang.
With a two goal lead and buoyed with confidence, Wolves were beginning to assert their dominance on the game as the second half progressed, but all that was missing was hitting the back of the net a third time.
Todd Cantwell had a good opportunity to make it 2-1 early in the second half, but could only lash an effort well over from inside the box, while former Wolves skipper Danny Batth saw his header comfortably saved by Johnstone.
In the final quarter of the match, Wolves could have put the result beyond any doubt as multiple chances were spurned.
Firstly, Cunha met a Sarabia cross in the box but could not turn his header on target while Marshall Munetsi came close to a debut goal when moments after coming on, he was unable to head Rodrigo Gomes’s cross at goal.
Batth cleared a clever Cunha chip off the line after the Brazilian had lifted the ball over the head of Toth, before the keeper came out on top of another battle between the pair when he palmed Cunha’s shot away, while Munetsi smashed a powerful shot wide.
Wolves continued to pepper Blackburn’s goal with shots, but just could not find a third goal, but it mattered not, as the Old Gold walked away with a second successive win in all competitions and book their place in the fifth round.
Full-time | Blackburn 0-2 Wolves
Blackburn | Toth, Rankin-Costello, Hyam, Batth, Ribeiro, Forshaw (Hedges 84), Buckley, Cozier-Duberry (Dolan 57), Cantwell (Gueye 57), Kargbo (Weimann 67), Dennis (Woodrow 67).
Unused subs | Pears, Brittain, Beck, Travis.
Wolves | Johnstone, Semedo (Ait-Nouri 84), Bueno (Doherty 45), Agbadou, Toti, R. Gomes, J. Gomes, Bellegarde (Andre 66), Hwang (Sarabia 45), Cunha, Guedes (Munetsi 66).
Unused subs | Bentley, Djiga, Doyle, Forbs.
Referee | Lewis Smith.
