Julen Lopetegui won his first Premier League game as manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers on Boxing Day. A dramatic last-gasp winner from substitute Aït Nouri saw Wolves beat Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park, but a brilliant first-half goal involving João Moutinho and Daniel Podence was the take-way piece of quality from the encounter.
Lopetegui was named full-time successor to Bruno Lage at Molineux in November, shortly before the Premier League paused for the World Cup in Qatar to take centre stage. The English top flight resumed on Monday, with Lopetegui naming five Portuguese in his debut line-up.
José Sá continued in goal, Nélson Semedo was selected at right-back and Rúben Neves teamed up with Moutinho in midfield, while Podence took his place on the left of the attack. Former Sporting midfielder Matheus Nunes was dropped to the bench, where he was joined by Gonçalo Guedes and Toti.
Everton took a 7th-minute lead through Colombian defender Yerry Mina, but Wolves were level midway through the first half with a superbly-worked reply. Podence took a short corner and made his way into the danger area as the ball was worked to Moutinho on the edge of the box, from where the veteran produced the deftest of passes to set up Podence, who finished first-time on his right foot.
Great to see Moutinho showing his class again today with the assist for Podence ?? pic.twitter.com/nOqkfTkk5e
— Sean Gillen (@SeanGillen9) December 26, 2022
Nunes and Guedes entered the action in the second half, as the match looked to be headed for a 1-1 share of the spoils until a brisk Wolves counter attack in the 95th minute ended with Aït Nouri’s clinching goal. After the match, captain Neves spoke about Podence’s strike, which marked the first Premier League goal of the Lopetegui era.
“We work a lot during the week to come to the game and do that kind of thing,” Neves said. “Set pieces are a massive part of the game, we conceded a goal from a corner as well, so we need to improve on that, but we work a lot on our offensive set pieces, and it worked well.
“[The new coach has made] a lot of impact. He’s a really experienced manager, he worked in big teams before, so it’s always good to work with a coach like this. Everyone is improving a lot. A lot of room to improve, room to work, but it was a really good start for us.
“We’ve been working on a lot of things to improve our game, to be better as a team, and that’s the impact he’s had on us. He’s won a lot of trophies, so we’re lucky to work with a manager like this, we need to improve and listen to him.”
By Sean Gillen
