Section:GDN 1N PaGe:51 Edition Date:190830 Edition:03 Zone: Sent at 30/8/2019 0:28 cYanmaGentaYellowbl
Friday 30 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •••
Sport^51
Football Europa League play-off sRound-upRangers are
through after
Pope makes
appearance
Alfredo Morelos sparked jubilant
scenes at Ibrox as his injury-time
winner against Legia Warsaw sent
Rangers into the Europa League
group stage.
Eyes and ears were on the Govan
stands as much as the action on the
pitch after Uefa issued Rangers with
a double rap for sectarian singing.
But the biggest roar of the night
was reserved for Morelos as he
sealed a last-gasp 1-0 win which sees
Steven Gerrard’s team repeat their
feat of making it all the way through
four rounds to qualify.
And Legia will likely now
from the players at the minute. ”
Apart from one half against Cluj we
have made an outstanding start to
the season and we have got some big
games now to look forward to.
“The fi rst goal was a beautiful
goal, great interplay from Jamesy
and Odsonne, and an outstanding
composed fi nish. Jamesy was
magnifi cent in everything he did, on
the ball, off the ball.
“The front four, [Ryan] Christie,
Johnston, Odsonne and Jamesy,
looked very powerful, looked a
threat, looked fi t. And we kept going;
there was a real thirst for goals,
which is the way we want to play.”
Linfi eld’s attempt to reach the
group stages ended in frustration in
Azerbaijan as they lost to Qarabag
on away goals. Qarabag – who were
trailing 3-2 from the fi rst leg in
Belfast – took a sixth-minute lead
through Jaime Romero. Abdellah
Zoubir’s late goal made it 4-3 to
Qarabag and, despite Shayne
Lavery’s injury-time goal, the
Northern Irishmen went out with
the tie level at 4-4.Wolve s complete
their Italian job to
make group stage
Wolves 2
Jiménez 30, Dendoncker 58
Torino 1
Belotti 57
Wolves win 5-3 on agg.
Paul Doyle
Molineux
Sometimes Nuno Espírito Santo
makes it his mission to puncture hype
but after watching his team reach
the Europa League group stage by
completing an impressive aggregate
victory over Torino, the Wolves
manager allowed himself to trumpet
his team’s success.
“It’s fantastic, isn’t it?” said Nuno
in a tone uncharacteristically close
to giddiness after goals from Raúl
Jiménez and Leander Dendoncker,
either side of a reply by Andrea Belotti,
gave his side a 5-3 win on aggregate
that took them into today’s draw.
For a manager who took charge of
Wolves in 2017 when they were still in
the Championship, and for a club who
had not competed in a major European
competition for nearly 40 years until
this season, this is a feat to cherish.
“The work started two years ago in the
Championship – all this work, building
and building,” he said.
“What the boys have done is
fantastic. It’s very important for us.
Massive. Massive. We will sit down
and watch the draw and that will be a
pleasure for all Wolves fans.”
Given the way certain other clubs
have looked down on the Europa
League in recent seasons, it is
refreshing how Wolves have embraced
it. The way they have played – winning
six matches out of six – gives them
genuine hope of venturing beyond the
group stage no matter whom they are
pitted against. Chances are that few
of their group opponents will be as
nifty as Torino, one of the toughest
adversaries Wolves could have been
paired with for the play-off. They
gave the home side a rigorous test
but Wolves ultimately passed it with
fl ying colours.
This was their ninth match in
36 days since they kicked off their
season at the end of July but no one at
Molineux is grumbling about a heavy
workload. Perhaps it will take a toll
later in the season, but Nuno thinks
otherwise. “This is what we want,” he
said. “We want to play and play. We
use games as a tool for us to grow as
a team.”
His team selection refl ected that
conviction. The only alteration from
the fi rst leg was to bring back Jonny
Otto at left wing-back in stead of
Rúben Vinagre, whose foul in Turin
led to Belotti scoring a late penalty
that kept Torino’s qualifi cation hopes
alive.
Belotti caused the most trouble to
Wolves in that game and the striker
proved a pest again. But not only him,
because Torino started with a brisk
menace that suggested they fancied
their chances of becoming the fi rst
visitors since January to win here.
They took most of the initiative early
on, pressing energetically and^ looking
to unhinge Wolves with zippy passing
and movement.
Wolves held fi rm for the most part,
though they had a fright in the 16th
minute when a headed clearance by
Conor Coady fell to Tomás Rincón
at the edge of the area. The
Venezuelan’s volley whizzed a couple
of yards wide.
It was 24 minutes before Wolves
rattled the visitors thanks to theexhilarating speed and directness of
Adama Traoré, who raced straight
through the defence from halfway
before Salvatore Sirigu batted away
his shot from 10 yards.
Wolves seemed to take heart from
that while Torino grew even more
wary of Traoré, whose progression
from erratic winger to consistently
brilliant wing-back has been one of
the most thrilling features of their
season.It did not take him long to underline
that point. On the half-hour he threw
the visitors into a panic again, teasing
Temitayo Aina and Sasa Lukic down
the right before splitting them with a
perfect cross to Jiménez, who nipped
in front of two defenders at the near
post to produce the fi nish that the
build-up deserved.
A full Molineux under the fl ood-
lights is always a picture and that goal
added an extra dash of beauty.
Torino did not lie down. Rui Patrício
had to stretch himself to swat away
a free -kick from Daniele Beselli in
the 50th minute. That was merely a
warning: in the 56th minute Beselli
whipped in another free -kick from the
left and Belotti darted into its path and
fl icked a header in from six yards.
The comeback was on. And then it
was off. Within 55 seconds Wolves had
restored their lead, Diogo Jota forcing
a save from Sirigu before Dendonckerguided the rebound into the net via
a post.
“We got confused,” said the Torino
manager, Walter Mazzarri , adding that
his side failed to stop Wolves because
“we were too euphoric about scoring ”.
At full-time the celebrations were
all from the home team’s staff and fans.
Wolves’ European adventure will last
for six more matches – at least.▲ Raúl Jiménez fi ghts hard to put
Wolves ahead in the 30th minute
MARC ATKINS/GETTY IMAGES▲ Leander Dendoncker embraces his
teammates after scoring the winnerWolves
3-5-2
Rui Patricio; Vallejo,
Coady, Boly; Traor é,
Dendoncker, Saiss,
Moutinho (Neves 89,
Otto•; Jim énez (Neto
90), Jota (Cutrone 81)
Subs not used
Ruddy, Vinagre,
Bennett, Gibbs-WhiteTorino
3-5-2
Sirigu; Izzo, Bremer•,
Bonifazi; De Silvestri,
Baselli•, Rincon
(Meite 71), Lukic•, Aina
(Berenguer 70); Zaza
(Millico 82), Belotti
Subs not used
Rosati, Singo, Paraigini,
DjidjiReferee Jesús Gil Manzano (Sp)fi nd themselves in trouble with
European football’s governing body
after the travelling Polish support set
off a spectacular pyrotechnic display
that temporarily halted the game
with the fi eld shrouded in a thick
blanket of smoke.
Rangers were forced to close
off 3,000 seats as a result of the
sectarian chants that marred their
opening qualifi er with St Joseph’s,
while the threat of a more severe
punishment - including a full
stadium closure - is yet to be decided
after more chants were aired in
Warsaw last week. The Legia fans did
their best to spark a response from
the home support as they unfurled a
banner apparently depicting the late
Pope John Paul II, himself a Pole.
But the home faithful kept the
songbook clean as they responded to
Gerrard’s call to pump up the noise.
Earlier the Scottish champions,
Celtic, enjoyed a comfortable second
leg, beating AIK 4-1 in Sweden to go
through 6-1 on aggregate.
James Forrest netted a brilliant
counter-attack goal in the 17th▼ Legia Warsaw fans unfurl a fl ag at
Ibrox featuring Pope John Paul II
MALCOLM MACKENZIE/PROSPORTS/SHUTTERSTOCKminute and Mikey Johnston forced
an own goal from the AIK goalkeeper
after superb wing play 60 seconds
after Sebastian Larsson levelled
from the penalty spot. Christopher
Jullien and the substitute Lewis
Morgan both scored their fi rst
Celtic goals from close range in the
closing stages after the visitors had
controlled the second half.
The Celtic manager, NeilLennon, said: “Outstanding, the
whole team, the subs who came
on made a contribution. I couldn’t
have envisaged us playing so well.
Going forward we were a dream
at times. To score four goals away
from home, and it could have been
more, is brilliant. We looked strong,
we played some brilliant football,
we defended resolutely when we
needed to. I can’t ask for any moreRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws