Express & Star

Wolves' Leander Dendoncker hoping for European run

Midfielder Leander Dendoncker thinks Wolves can have a good run in the Europa League – if they reach the group stages.

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Dendoncker with goalscorer Ruben Neves (© AMA / Sam Bagnall)

Wolves are on course to reach the play-off round of the Europa League qualifiers after beating Armenian side Pyunik 4-0 away from home on Thursday night.

They will almost certainly take on Italian side Torino for a play in the group stage, which takes place between September and December.

Dendoncker helped Anderlecht reach the quarter-finals in the competition in 2016/17, with the Belgian scoring against Manchester United as they bowed out 3-2 on aggregate.

And he told the Express & Star: "I think we can do well in the competition. First we have to try to go into the group stage and it won't be easy, because if we go through the next game is probably against Torino who would be a very tough opponent.

"We'll see, we'll take it game by game, we have a very important game on Sunday (against Leicester) too.

"Things have gone well in pre-season. We played a lot of games already and there are a lot coming up. I'm looking forward to Sunday."

Raul Jimenez scored twice in Yerevan, with Matt Doherty and Ruben Neves adding the other goals.

Dendoncker said of the match: "It was a good workout. The first 10 minutes were difficult, bad pitch, hot and we didn't really know the opponent. I think they tried to play and they managed to play but they weren't dangerous.

"After that we controlled the game more and once we got the ball we did really good things, some great actions and some great goals.

"To win 4-0 is a very nice result."