Everton 1-3 Wolves: Nuno’s men too good for Silva’s stuttering Toffees
Wolves began this game looking like a team who were on their way to winning three in a row. Despite Marco Silva’s pre-game efforts, Everton looked flat right from the opening whistle and allowed Wolves to come onto them at pace.
It took Nuno’s men just 7 minutes to open the scoring too. A darting run into the box from star man Matt Doherty put Leighton Baines in trouble. While trying to cover, the veteran defender clipped the Wolves man to give away what was a pretty straightforward penalty.
Ruben Neves stepped up and made no mistake as he sent the goalkeeper the wrong way. As a reaction to going down at home, Everton slowly began pulling the strings and were getting into the flow of things.
Within 10 minutes of the opener, Everton had their equaliser through Andre Gomes. Cenk Tosun picked up the ball in the midfield and flicked it on for a charging Gomes. He strode into the box and struck a venomous shot into the top corner that beat Rui Patricio at the near post.
After the goal, the game suddenly transformed into a very tactical contest. With both teams creating clear chances, it was a race to see who could get the next goal.
As it turned out, it was the away side who stepped up to take advantage right on the edge of the interval. They were awarded a free-kick around 30 yards away from goal and as expected, Portuguese veteran Joao Moutinho was over the dead-ball.
He played a perfect ball which was met on the edge of the 6-yard box by loanee striker Raul Jimenez who has been in blistering form having notched up 4 goals in his last 3 games.
With the beginning of the 2nd half, Everton began pushing to find yet another equaliser at Goodison Park as a frustrated Toffees fan base began to make their feelings known.
For all the Everton possession and pressure, it was Nuno’s side who got the all-important third goal that ensured that any hopes of a home comeback were diminished.
A shot from the left-wing was parried by Pickford but the ball ping-ponged off a couple of players before falling to Dendoncker, who was free. He shanked the ball into the roof of the net to secure all the points for Wolves.
Having been the second best-team all game and despite having more than 60% possession, Everton were unable to impose themselves even after the third goal and Wolves took the 3 points from Goodison Park to sit pretty in 7th place.
Here’s what some overjoyed Wolves fans had to say:
outstanding lads!! beautifully done.
pulling away from the middle of the pack now, and finally back into positive GD.
Jota MotM…Donck also tremendous…wonderful from everyone!
this is good stuff Wolves and we’re loving it!
— man named mark (@photoheathen) February 2, 2019
What joy! Fabulous Wolves!! Love it love it
— nigelsharp51 (@nigelsharp51) February 2, 2019
AMAZING AWAY WIN WELL DONE WOLVES
— Enjoy your life (@english4alu) February 2, 2019
dendoncker is a beast!
— Gylfi_Firmino (@FirminoGylfi) February 2, 2019
Get in there Wolves, great performance at a difficult away ground, on to the next one and keep up the hard work, fight for each other.
— Kenny Simpson (@kennysimpson191) February 2, 2019
Go boldly forth and finish “Best of the Rest”
— Philip Kong (@philipkong) February 2, 2019
Great result lads,,,,,👍👍👍🐺🐺🐺🐺
— Ken,,, (@keneth_cox) February 2, 2019