New Wolves boss Vitor Pereira is confident of staying up after comfortably beating Leicester City in his first game in charge.
New Wolves boss Vitor Pereira believes “we will stay in the Premier League” after his Wolves reign got off to a dream start
After being named Gary O’Neil’s replacement on Thursday, the Portuguese coach made four changes to the team that lost to Ipswich 2-1 at home last week.
He brought in two of his countrymen, Rodrigo Gomes and Goncalo Guedes, who both jumped in the first thirty-six minutes.
Just before halftime, top scorer Matheus Cunha added a third goal with his ninth of the season, taking advantage of some careless Leicester defence.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, the manager of Leicester, made two substitutions: one at halftime and another seven minutes into the second half.
Wolves ended a four-game losing sequence to go within two points of Leicester, who sit one spot above the relegation zone, but the hosts hardly posed a danger.
“I believe that we will stay in the Premier League and we will play at a better level than we saw today,” Pereira told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“Today I am happy, as the team showed spirit and that spirit is what Wolves supporters want to see.”
Nelson Semedo chipped a speculative pass down the right channel, and it somehow ended up in the box where Goncalo Guedes scored the first goal. With the first shot of Pereira’s career, the Portugal forward, who was making only his second league start of the season, was able to hook it past Leicester custodian Danny Ward.
After then, Matt Doherty attempted a hopeful diagonal pass to James Justin, the right-back for Leicester, who decided to let it pass him without noticing that Gomes had gained an advantage.
Gomes tried to poke the ball goalwards after taking a hard hit on his chest. The goalie had dived to his right, expecting Gomes to touch again, but even though he missed, it still flew past Ward and into the Leicester net.
The Brazil striker then displayed excellent control to sneak the ball past Ward and in off the far post after Semedo delivered a pass down the right wing for Guedes, who was then free to circle back inside and find Cunha as halftime drew near.
Leicester swiftly made a host of substitutions, but Wolves still went closest to scoring after the break, through Santiago Bueno and Joao Gomes.
“In three days, to organise the team and give them confidence to play – that is hard,” Pereira added.
“I asked them to be proud of our work at the end of the game and to make the supporters proud of our work.”