Wolves boost European hopes with 2-1 win over Leicester

February 20, 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers' Hwang Hee-Chan in action with Leicester City's Ricardo Pereira Action Images via Reuters

Wolverhampton Wanderers' boosted their chances of European football next season as they held off a resurgent Leicester City to secure a 2-1 win at the Molineux in the Premier League on Sunday.

The home side got off to the perfect start when Ruben Neves fired them in front in the ninth minute with a superb strike from the edge of the box after being teed up by Raul Jimenez.

Rayan Ait-Nouri came close to doubling their lead in the 24th minute following some deft footwork by Daniel Podence, but the Frenchman's effort flashed wide before Leicester sliced Wolves open with a slick team move to equalise before half-time.

Ademola Lookman put the ball in the back of the net but the goal was created by Youri Tielemans, who threaded a fine pass to Marc Albrighton before the winger squared it to Lookman.

Leicester carried that momentum into the second half but Wolves struck against the run of play in the 66th minute when Podence's low drive from outside the area beat Kasper Schmeichel. It was the Portuguese's first league goal of the season.

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers sent on James Maddison in search of an equaliser and the 25-year-old was a lively presence, but the visitors failed to break down the Wolves defence despite seeing much more of the ball.

The win lifted Wolves to seventh in the standings on 40 points after 24 games. Leicester, who are now winless in their last five league games, remain in 11th place on 27 points.

"I have seen us starting to return to our levels of play and creativity. It is just disappointing - they had two shots from outside the box and it's two goals," said Rodgers.

"Our movement and brightness in the final third was good, we just lacked that position for our final effort on goal."

Wolves manager Bruno Lage felt there was room for improvement despite a fifth victory in their last six league encounters.

"We won the three points and scored twice but I think it was OK. It was not our best performance," said Lage.

"The step forward for me and my players to be a bigger team is when you play these sorts of teams, that create problems, we need to control more of the game. In some periods we didn't in the way we defended and pressed."