Frank Lampard and N’Golo Kante paid tribute to Wolverhampton Wanderers after their 2-1 comeback victory over Chelsea on Tuesday, highlighting their defensive organisation and counter-attacking threat via the Blues’ official website.
Talk about a turnaround.
Wolves were ponderous, plodding and completely devoid of attacking invention in a grim first half at Molineux last night; until Olivier Giroud’s 49th minute opener seemed to flick a switch and spark the hosts into life.
The final half-hour of yesterday’s topsy-turvy encounter was perhaps the finest football Wolves have played all season.
Suddenly, there was energy, aggression and no shortage of goal-threat, with Daniel Podence and Pedro Neto once again stepping up to the plate in spectacular fashion.
Podence showcased his gilded touch and game-changing verve with a brilliantly taken equaliser before Neto caught Chelsea cold at the death, racing away to fire a 95th minute winner past a helpless Edouard Mendy.
“The threat of Wolves is clearly the counter-attack. They’ve got others but the counter-attack is the main one,” said a dejected Lampard, whose somewhat callow side gave Neto acres of space to wreak havoc as they pushed for a goal at the other end.
“They defend well, they’re organised, they have speed and quality in forward areas. The players knew it before the game, the players knew it in the game, and we allowed some counter-attacks and if you allow a team to play to their strengths then you may lose that game.”
Willy Boly, Conor Coady and the criminally underrated Romain Saiss did their bit too as Nuno Espirito Santo reverted to his favoured three-man backline against Chelsea.
The Wolves trio stood strong as Christian Pulisic and co hammered on the door during a dominant opening period from the London giants.
“In the first half, they had five at the back and were defending very well so we weren’t able to have many chances,” Kante added. “We were happy to score with our first shot on target but we didn’t manage the result well.”
After successive defeats against Liverpool and Aston Villa, a Raul Jimenez-less Wolves are now back in the top half of the table.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
