Wolves' Leander Dendoncker enjoying tests against world's best

Belgian midfielder Dendoncker made his fifth Wolves appearance when he played the full 90 minutes in the 2-1 FA Cup win over Liverpool on Monday.

It came swiftly after his belated first league start for Wolves two games earlier when Nuno Espirito Santo’s team beat Spurs 3-1 at Wembley.

And he enjoyed slotting in alongside Ruben Neves and Joao Moutinho against the Reds.

“It’s great to play in the team, it helps to be on their side,” he said.

“I’m happy for the team, we will see what comes.

“The whole team performed really well. We try to help each other a lot, that’s what we try to do every game.

“It was a good team performance, the whole team worked a lot for the win.

“We kept on going, even when they scored at 1-1.”

Wolves were pegged back by Divock Origi’s equaliser but soon retook the lead through Ruben Neves and held on to reach the fourth round, where they will travel to either Shrewsbury or Stoke.

“The coach asked us to work a lot and be well organised,” Dendoncker added.

“We tried to put them under pressure from the start and they had difficulty trying to find solutions. That was what we wanted.

“We were dangerous on the counter and that’s where we scored from. We can be proud.

“Against a team like Liverpool, it’s quite massive.

“It doesn’t matter who we play, we always have to perform and try to give everything and do our best.

“We have to keep on doing that and then we’ll be hard to beat.”

Before the next round of the Cup, Wolves face Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at the Etihad on Monday. Nuno’s team held City to a 1-1 draw back in August, while they took City all the way to penalties in the Carabao Cup last

season.

Dendoncker believes Wolves’ organisation will be key if they’re to get another shock result against the Premier League title contenders.

“It won’t be easy; as the coach says, we play maybe the two best teams in the world,” Anderlecht loanee Dendoncker, who has earned six caps for Belgium and will join Wolves permanently for £12m next summer, added.

“Now it’s City, we have to go with the same spirit and be well organised.

“At home they are very strong, but we will see – we’ll do our best and give everything.”