Nelson Semedo might have struggled to fill Dani Alves’ boots at Barcelona but, in Portugal’s 7-0 thrashing of Andorra on Wednesday, the rampaging right-back dominated proceedings in a manner reminiscent of a certain legendary Brazilian.
Yes, the opposition was poor (145th in the FIFA rankings poor) but that doesn’t change the fact that, right now, Semedo is a man absolutely at the top of his game.
After a sluggish start to life at Molineux, the £28 million speed-machine is starting to produce the kind of buccaneering performances which explain why Barca thought he could take Alves’ place back in 2017.
Crystal Palace were powerless to stop Semedo’s thundering forward bursts in the most comfortable of Wolves wins two weeks ago and, if that was his best Premier League performance, he produced perhaps his finest international display on Wednesday too.
The former Benfica flyer played a major role in Portugal’s first, slammed home on his debut by Wolves team-mate Pedro Neto, before helping Paulinho break his duck with another pinpoint delivery from the right-hand side.
And the way Semedo combined intuitively with a reborn Renato Sanches will have Wolves fans drooling.
Not least because, according to Calciomercato, the £23 million Lille playmaker is a January target for Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
And yes, before you ask, Sanches is a Jorge Mendes client.
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