Wolves 3 Leicester 0 - Report

The first half was a struggle to watch with both sides seemingly contemplating their summer holidays, but Matheus Cunha injected some life into it with a smart finish from close range to put Wolves ahead.

Jorgen Strand Larsen then doubled the lead in the second half with a clinical effort, from a Cunha assist, to put Wolves firmly in the ascendency.

Another Cunha assist set up Rodrigo Gomes for Wolves’ third, as the team saw out the remaining minutes with poise and confidence as they extended their superb winning run.

Analysis

Vitor Pereira made two changes to the Wolves side that beat Manchester United last time out.

Goalkeeper Jose Sa, who got injured in the warm-up at Old Trafford, came back in for his understudy Dan Bentley, while Matt Doherty replaced Santi Bueno in defence.

Hwang Hee-chan and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde returned from injury to make the bench and were joined by Goncalo Guedes, who Pereira recently publicly challenged to get back into his plans.

There was no place in the squad for midfielders Boubacar Traore and Tommy Doyle.

Ruud van Nistelrooy named former Wolves captain Conor Coady in his Leicester starting XI.

Wolves were in charge during the early stages and almost took the lead when Cunha turned in midfield and went on an excellent run from deep, before curling wide.

Yet the game had the feeling of an end of season fixture within the first 15 minutes and while Wolves were still in control, they needed to up the tempo slightly against a Leicester side there for the taking.

When Wolves did speed things up, they broke Leicester down with ease. A one-two between Toti Gomes and Rayan Ait-Nouri saw the former go on a brilliant run before delivering a defence-splitting pass to Cunha, who had a shot blocked.

Marshall Munetsi then laid the ball off for Cunha, who had a shot saved.

Ait-Nouri came closest with a far post header that had beaten goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, but Wout Faes headed clear off his line.

The hosts finally took the lead when a lovely one-two between Cunha and Ait-Nouri saw the wing-back race down the left and cross low for the Brazilian, who had a simple finish.

Wolves faces responded by chanting against Manchester United, who are in talks to sign Cunha in the summer.

Larsen had a good chance at the near post but Wolves entered the half-time break winning 1-0.

Leicester started the second half a bit brighter but it was Wolves that should have scored a second on the break.

Cunha had a shot saved first before Ait-Nouri set Larsen up for a sitter from three yards, but he leant back and lifted the ball over the bar.

However, the striker made up for that miss minutes later when he doubled Wolves’ lead.

Cunha picked the ball up on the left and his fabulous pass found Larsen in space, who rifled the ball into the bottom corner.

Leicester were awarded a penalty in the 71st minute when Vardy was played through and went down under a challenge from Sa. The penalty was still given, despite replays suggesting Vardy flung his leg into the goalkeeper.

But justice was served moments later when Sa dived down to his right and made a strong save to deny the veteran striker.

Wolves made it 3-0 with another Cunha assist after he raced through one-v-one with Coady and played a simple pass to his right for R.Gomes to smash home.

The hosts saw out five minutes of added time to add another three points to their tally.

Key Moments

GOAL 33 Cunha fired Wolves into the lead

GOAL 56 Larsen’s clinical finish made it 2-0

GOAL 85 R.Gomes smashed home a third

Teams

Wolves: Sa, Semedo (Forbs, 88), Doherty (Bueno, 84), Agbadou, Toti, Ait-Nouri (R.Gomes, 77), Andre (Bellegarde, 84), J.Gomes, Munetsi, Cunha (Guedes, 88), Larsen (Sarabia, 77).

Subs not used: Bentley, Djiga, Hwang.

Leicester: Hermansen, Pereira (Justin, 45), Faes, Coady, Thomas, Ndidi, Soumare (Skipp, 45), El Khannouss (Monga, 83), De Cordava-Reid (Ayew, 45), Buonanotte (McAteer, 45), Vardy.

Subs not used: Stolarczyk, Okoli, Kristiansen, Daka.