Wolves 3 (Cunha 33, Strand Larsen 56, R. Gomes 85) Leicester City 0
Wolves continued their excellent run of form with an emphatic victory over Leicester City at Molineux, extending their Premier League winning streak to six matches.
Matheus Cunha was influential throughout the victory, opening the scoring during a dominant first-half for Wolves, before providing assists for both second-half goals.
Jorgen Strand Larsen netted Wolves’ second not long after half-time, before Jose Sa preserved the host’s two-goal advantage with a superb save from Jamie Vardy’s penalty 20 minutes from time.
Rodrigo Gomes then capped off another outstanding Old Gold performance under Vitor Pereira, sealing all three points with a late third goal.
Fresh from completing the league double over Manchester United at Old Trafford, Wolves returned home brimming with confidence and started well. Cunha registered the first attempt of the contest, driving from his own half until reaching Leicester’s penalty area, but his eventual strike failed to trouble Mads Hermansen
The opening exchanges were cagey, with Leicester creating their first real chance just past the 20-minute mark. Former Wolves captain Conor Coady rose highest from a corner, but his header was comfortably claimed by Sa.
Pereira’s side gradually began to assert themselves, and chances started to materialise. Cunha went close again when he received a lay-off from Marshall Munetsi with his back to goal, but once more the Leicester keeper was equal to the effort. Ait-Nouri soon had a sight of goal, but he saw his effort cleared off the line.
Moments later, however, Molineux erupted. Cunha and Ait-Nouri linked up well down the left flank and the Algerian powered to the byline, before his neat cut-back was diverted in by Wolves’ number 10.
The hosts dominated the remainder of the first half and fully merited their half-time lead - though they could have easily doubled it. Cunha’s influential first half continued when he found Strand Larsen with a whipped delivery into the box, but the Norwegian's glanced effort went wide of the front post.
Half-time | Wolves 1-0 Leicester
Wolves started the second period with far more urgency than they had shown in the first, and Strand Larsen had a golden opportunity to double the lead soon after the restart. Following a bout of pinball inside the Leicester box, the ball kindly fell to the Norwegian, but he could only stab his close-range effort clear of the crossbar.
However, similarly to Cunha in the first half, a missed chance was swiftly followed by a goal. The Brazilian played a perfectly weighted through ball into Strand Larsen’s path, who took it into his stride before calmly slotting past the Leicester shot stopper to notch his 13th Premier League goal of the season.
Wolves continued to dictate proceedings and gradually drained the belief out of their opponents, restricting Leicester to few openings throughout the second half.
The visitors were handed a lifeline with 20 minutes remaining when Vardy was brought to ground by Sa inside the penalty area. The veteran striker stepped up to take the resulting spot-kick, but Sa was excellently down low and equal to the penalty, to preserve Wolves’ two-goal lead.
With Leicester’s hopes all but extinguished, substitute Rodrigo Gomes firmly put the three points beyond doubt just five minutes from time. Once again involved, Cunha was at the heart of the move, driving towards goal before slotting Gomes through one-on-one with Hermansen, and the Portuguese youngster made no mistake, coolly finishing into the bottom corner.
The Old Gold comfortably saw out the victory, amassing 40 points in a Premier League campaign for the seventh consecutive season, and making it six wins in a row in the top flight for the first time since 1970.
Full-time | Wolves 3-0 Leicester
Wolves | Sa, Semedo (Guedes 89), Doherty (Bueno 84), Agbadou, Toti, Ait-Nouri (Sarabia 77), Andre (Bellegarde 84), J. Gomes, Munetsi, Cunha (Forbs 89), Strand Larsen (R. Gomes 77).
Unused subs | Bentley, Hwang, Djiga.
Leicester | Hermansen, Ricardo (Justin 46), Faes, Coady, Thomas, Ndidi, Soumare (Skipp 46), El-Khannouss (Monga 83), De Cordova-Reid (Ayew 45+1), Buonanotte (McAteer 46), Vardy.
Unused subs | Stolarczyk, Okoli, Kristiansen, Daka.
Referee | Sam Barrott
Report by Callum Greybanks
