On Thursday, from 20:00 pm, Wolverhampton receives a visit from Sporting Braga, in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League groups. Shared with Slovan Bratislava and Besiktas, Wolves and Braga do not plan to start the European adventure with a failure in the first round. Hosts are favorites to success.
Wolverhampton have a complete lot before the match with Sporting Braga, a match with special significance for the manager of the host, Nuno Espirito Santo. The Portuguese will play with a team from his native country, and he knows his opponents very well Lusitanian. Like Wolves, Braga comes to this game with all the players, except for the injured Raul Silva, who is hit in the knee.
Wolverhampton has big defensive problems this start of the season, and the last match was a nightmare for Nuno Santo’s “wolves”: 2-5 with Chelsea in the championship! In total, the “wolves” have received 12 goals in the last 5 official games and have scored at least one goal in each of the last 6 games. Instead, Braga hopes to end the series black, from an offensive point of view: the red and white come after two failures to zero in the championship, against Benfica (0-4) and Victory Setubal (0-1).
Both teams want a qualification in the European spring, but we expect a cautious start to the match, in which neither side will take great risks. The two teams play a similar style, with three offensive players, but the difference could be made by the quality of the host midfielders.
PREDICTION: Wolves to win @ 1,56
