60 2GM Friday August 7 2020 | the times
SportEuropa League
match the wages that United were pay-
ing Sánchez, and the forward refused to
accept a significant pay cut, United had
to give him a payoff just to get him off
their books. The payoff is less than the
remaining value of his contract, which
was worth more than £40 million, but it
is still another expense that the club
have incurred during Sánchez’s 2½
years at the club.
He scored only five goals for United
after joining from Arsenal in a straight
swap deal with Henrikh Mkhitaryan in
January 2018. He performed so poorly
that Solskjaer sent him on a season’s
loan to Inter last summer. Sánchez
scored four goals in 30 appearances in
all competitions for Inter.is for free”. The dreaming intensified
after eight minutes, and inevitably
Jiménez was involved. Wolves’ pressing
had been sharp and percussive from the
start, and they quickly turned over
possession. Daniel Podence picked off a
loose ball against his old team, scurried
forward, and slipped the ball in to
Jiménez. Ousseynou Ba touched the
ball back to Bobby Allain and that
should have been the end of the threat.
But the wrist injury sustained by
their first-choice goalkeeper, José Sá, in
training looked even more expensive
for Olympiacos. Allain was rushed into
his European debut. He is an interest-
ing character, French but of Scottish
descent on his mother’s side, started out
at Clyde, had a week on trial at Rangers
and two years ago was the feature of a
long profile in the French media head-
lined “I have thought of getting married
in a kilt”.
He might consider disguise after a
painful few minutes last night. A heavy
first touch put him under immediatepressure as Podence continued his
chasing duties. Podence seized on the
ball but was heading out of the box.
Allain could have left the situation to
his defenders, and retreated to his line.
Instead, Allain inexplicably shoved
Podence, gifting Wolves one of the
easiest penalties they will be awarded.
Szymon Marciniak, the Polish referee,
pointed immediately to the spot.
So clinical at penalties, Jiménez
strolled towards the ball, waiting for
Allain to commit himself. Wolves’ No 9
shaped to whip the ball left, Allain
dived, then the forward opened his
right foot and placed the ball the other
way, into the empty half of the goal.
That should have settled Wolves but
Olympiacos had shown their danger
against Arsenal. Nuno’s side were not
helped by losing Jonny, who slipped
and tweaked his knee, and hobbled out
of Molineux, and surely out of Duis-
burg, an hour after the final whistle.
Back in the game, Olympiacos kept
attacking. Tsimikas, the excellent leftUnited flop Sánchez given
multimillion-pound payoff
Paul HirstManchester United have given Alexis
Sánchez a payoff of between £5 million
and £10 million as part of the severance
package that saw the Chile forward join
Inter Milan on a free transfer.
Inter announced yesterday morning
that Sánchez had signed a three-year
contract with the Italian club.
Ed Woodward, the United executive
vice-chairman, agreed to effectively rip
up the 31-year-old’s £391,000-per-week
contract with United, which had two
years left to run, after Ole Gunnar
Solskjaer made it clear that the forward
was not part of his first-team plans.
Given that Inter were unable toAubameyang deal criticised
in light of 55 redundancies
had a difficult season but impressed in
both the FA Cup semi-final and the
final. Arteta needs to raise funds,
though, and is ready to move him on.
Arsenal have faced criticism for the
negotiations in a week in which the club
announced 55 members of staff would
be made redundant as a result of the
coronavirus pandemic — a decision
they claimed was to allow them to
continue investing in the first-team
squad. Ian Wright, the club’s former
striker, wrote on Twitter: “Remember
who you are, what you are and who you
represent!!!”. Some Arsenal players
have been left disappointed by the
decision, too, having agreed to take a
12.5 per cent pay cut during lockdown.Salary caps in the lower
divisions ‘would be illegal’
The Professional Footballers’
Association has warned that plans for
salary caps in League One and
League Two would be “unlawful” and
has called for urgent discussions on
the issue (Paul Joyce writes). In a
strongly worded statement, the PFA
accused the English Football League
(EFL) of failing to properly consult
with the union over proposals for a
£2.5 million cap in the third tier and
£1.5 million in the fourth.
EFL clubs in the two divisions will
vote separately today on whether to
adopt the financial controls. The PFA
said it has significant reservations
about what would be a “seismic
change” in English football and
added: “We are gravely concerned
that any cap will be unlawful and
unenforceable, which will ultimately
be detrimental to everyone involved.”Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-4-3): R Patrício 8
— W Boly 7, C Coady 7, R Saïss 6 — M Doherty 7,
J Moutinho 7, R Neves 6, Jonny 6 (R Vinagre
17min, 6) — A Traoré 6 (D Jota 57, 6), R Jiménez 7,
D Podence 7 (L Dendoncker 71). Booked
Moutinho, Jiménez, Podence.
Olympiacos (4-3-3): B Allain 6 — O Elabdellaoui 6,
O Ba 6, P Cissé 6, K Tsimikas 6 — A Bouchalakis 6
(K Fortounis 46, 6), Guilherme 7 (Cafú 82),
M Camara 7 (A Hassan 65, 6) — M Valbuena 7,
Y El Arabi 7, G Masouras 6 (L Randjelovic 46, 6).
Booked Ba, Tsimikas, Cissé.
Referee S Marciniak.back, broke forward and only Patrício’s
reflexes saved Wolves.
Patrício was beaten after 28 minutes
when Youssef El Arabi went down the
right and cut the ball back for Mady
Camara to send a shot that deflected in
off Willy Boly. After a lengthy wait for
VAR, El Arabi’s armpit was judged to
have been offside, fractionally ahead of
Matt Doherty’s big toe.
Allain betrayed further nerves,
miscontrolling the ball as the second
half got under way, but then kept his
team’s hopes alive with a magnificent
save from Podence, pushing his shot
over. Nuno decided to rest Podence,
who took too long to leave the field and
earned a caution that rules him out of
the Seville tie.
The Olympiacos coach, Pedro
Martins, began gambling and Kostas
Fortounis and Hassan were an immedi-
ate threat. Diogo Jota, who replaced the
subdued Adama Traoré, should have
soothed Wolves’ quickening pulse after
79 minutes. Gifted the ball by Ba, Jota
ran through, tried to round Allain, who
clutched the ball at the substitute’s feet.
Olympiacos almost made Wolves
pay two minutes later. Tsimikas crossed
and Hassan steered a header goalwards
but there was Patrício, throwing
himself to his left to save. Wolves saw
the game out, and Jiménez more than
played his part.- Aubameyang paused talks over a
new contract earlier this season
because of concerns about the
direction the club was heading in,
having felt let down that a promise of
new signings was not met.
Arteta, the Arsenal head coach,
believes Aubameyang has been
convinced that the future is positive for
the club over the past few months,
culminating in the FA Cup triumph.
Arteta aims to strengthen his squad
this summer, with Willian, 31, expected
to join on a free from Chelsea. However
the club appear ready to sell Ainsley
Maitland-Niles. The 22-year-old has
continued from back
So many positive traits define this
engaging side of Nuno Espírito Santo’s.
So many of them are embodied in the
tireless, tenacious, team-minded, ambi-
tious centre forward, Raúl Jiménez,
again their match-winner.
In reaching the quarter-finals of the
Europa League praise also needs
bestowing on the Wolverhampton
Wanderers goalkeeper, Rui Patrício,
who made vital saves from Kostas
Tsimikas and Ahmed Hassan. Conor
Coady was the perfect leader to repel
the storm whipped up late on by
Olympiacos and set up next Tuesday’s
one-off tie against Seville in Duisburg.
So many contribute immensely to this
wonderful reviving of Wolves’ famous
European tradition.
But game after game, month after
month, Jiménez has excelled. The Mex-
ican rarely receives the acclaim
he deserves given his myriad
qualities and constant
impact. Last night
brought his 27th goal of
the season for club and
country, a spot kick
dispatched with
supreme confidence.
Such an all-round
centre forward, nerveless
penalty-taker and aerial
threat could walk into most
sides. Such a strong target man
capable of finishing and holding up play
really deserves to be in the Champions
League, not the Europa League.
It is not only the 29-year-old’s attack-
ing skills that mark him out, and he
tried to score with a spectacular
Rabona here, but also his willingness to
press, to track back and also help out
defending corners.
As Olympiacos desperately sought
to equalise, as the game stretched into
six minutes of added time, Jiménez was
showing for the ball, staying calm,
heading right to create, pushing into
the centre, keeping possession.
At the final whistle, he wandered
around congratulating team-mates,
consoling the vanquished, looking
hardly out of breath. This was Jiménez’s
55th game of the season, and he was un-
stinting in his exertions. This is, after all,
a man who travelled to
San Antonio, Texas, in
September for a Mexico
friendly against Argentina
and was back in action three days
later, starting for Wolves.
This has been a lengthy journey of a
season for Jiménez and Wolves. Nuno’s
men had kicked off their season 379
days ago, starting with a Europa League
qualifier against Crusaders, and have
since travelled all over. They have been
to Belfast and then Armenia with “The
Yerevan 48”, their redoubtable fans
who joined them on the 4,600-mile
round trip. They voyaged to Turin,
Istanbul, Bratislava, Braga and
Barcelona, to face Espanyol.
Such an odyssey and a marathon
required Greeks, so it was on to Piraeus
before the pandemic intervened. Now
this, a return without fans, barring a
couple who turned up two hours before
to hang a message outside the Billy
Wright Stand. The banner bore some
inspiring words from Nuno: “DreamingJiménez converted a first-half penalty, his 27th goal of the season, to earn his side a quarter-final place0
21
Wo l ve s
Jiménez (pen) 8Olympiacos
1
0
Jiménez fires Wolves into last eight
Henry Winter
Chief Football
Writer
How Europa League stands
Last night’s results
Wolves 1 Olympiacos 0 (agg 2-1)
Bayer Leverkusen 1 Rangers 0 (agg 4-1)
Seville 2 Roma 0 (First leg not played,
one-off tie)
Basle 1 Eintracht Frankfurt 0 (agg 4-0)Quarter-finals
Matches to be played in Cologne,
Duisburg, Düsseldorf and
Gelsenkirchen
Monday, August 10
Man Utd v Copenhagen
Inter Milan v Bayer Leverkusen
Tuesday, August 11
Shakhtar Donetsk v Basle
Wolves v SevillePETER POWELL/EPA37
Goal involvements for
Jiménez in all competitions
this season (27 goals, 10
assists). Kevin De Bruyne
(37) is the only Premier
League player with
as manyRound of 16, second leg
Wolves win 2-1 on agg