Julen Lopetegui still sees a threat to his upwardly-mobile Wolves

The Black County side are seven points clear of the relegation zone after beating Brentford.

Nick Mashiter
Sunday 16 April 2023 08:55 EDT
Julen Lopetegui’s Wolves are upwardly mobile (Barrington Coombs/PA)
Julen Lopetegui’s Wolves are upwardly mobile (Barrington Coombs/PA) (PA Wire)

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Boss Julen Lopetegui insists Wolves cannot consider themselves safe despite taking a giant step to survival.

Diego Costa and Hwang Hee-chan scored to give the hosts a deserved 2-0 win at Molineux on Saturday.

Wolves are seven points clear of the Premier League relegation zone with seven games left, with Lopetegui appointed when the club were second bottom in November.

“We are not safe. We are fighting. We have to take a lot of points ahead of us, a lot of teams, so we have to be ready to get these points,” he said.

“It’s one step more. We have to get more steps because to achieve our aim we have to get to the end with more points in front of us.

“You know the Premier League, you can win two matches, you can win against any team, you can lose against any team.

“This is the Premier League, so we have to be ready for the work we have to do in the future. We are happy, of course, but we are thinking of the next one.”

Costa – who scored his first goal for Wolves and first in English football for six years – was forced off after the break having tried to play on with a knee injury he picked up in the first half.

Lopetegui added: “He had a big knock in the first half. He started the second half but we were alert about him, after 15 minutes he told me he couldn’t continue. We have to assess him.”

Brentford have won just two of their last 10 games as their European hopes fade – they are ninth in the table having lost their last three Premier League games and are winless in five.

“For their first goal, Christian (Norgaard) has made a tackle and it’s rebounded to their guy,” Ethan Pinnock told the club’s official website.

“For their second goal, I blocked the cross and it’s gone right into the guy’s calf. It wasn’t our day.

“We create some good chances during the first half but weren’t able to put them away. We didn’t have the rub of the green.

“We could be a little bit more patient in our build-up sometimes. We didn’t create as much as we would’ve liked during the second half but it was a game of small margins.”

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