Wolves won their first European tie since 1973, overcoming Northern Irish side Crusaders 6-1 on aggregate.
Nuno Espírito Santo's team took a 2-0 lead from the first leg in Molineux to Seaview in Belfast last night with goals from Raul Jiminez and Ryan Bennett helping them over the line.
Our first European tie win since 1973/74.
🇪🇺🐺 pic.twitter.com/Khzz8PvIp1
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 1, 2019
The squad must now prepare for an over 6,000 kilometre trip to Armenia to face FC Pyunik in the third qualifying round of the Europa League. “We will start thinking about it now. The game is over and we have to think about the next round," said the Portuguese manager.
“We are ready and we know what we are going to face, we have thought about all the aspects. Let’s make the right decisions and go for it.
“Tonight we knew we were going to find a well-organised team. We conceded first and we weren’t expecting that moment but we reacted immediately, we reacted very well to the situation of the own goal.”
Crusaders got first blood last night in Belfast with Ryan Bennett scoring an own goal, however, Espírito Santo believed they bounced back well, "we knew what we were going to find - a team difficult to break down.
"We had a really fast and good reaction to our own goal and then managed the game much, much better. We have to prepare and recover well for the trip. It’s going to be tough but we are ready."
“To lose 6-1 over two legs says a lot for what we have accomplished here. They did us an honour playing their best team in both legs.
“Credit to our boys on how they prepared for these two games. We thwarted them time after time and to take the lead and scare them – for all of 30 seconds – was a nice moment.”
