Nuno wants ‘immediate reaction’ from underperforming Wolves

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo admits his side are underperforming after their opening Europa League defeat to Braga.

Ricardo Horta’s second-half winner earned the Portuguese visitors a 1-0 victory in Group K to further damage the hosts’ early-season hopes.

Wolves sit second bottom and are winless in the Premier League but missed the chance to kick-start their season on Thursday.

“We realise the situation that we are in,” said Nuno, whose team go to Crystal Palace on Sunday. “This is important. We face the reality and the reality says we not performing well so we have to analyse it and find solutions in the team to improve.

“This is what we have to do, we have to come strong on Sunday, we must react immediately.

“We have to take decisions and find solutions for the team because we have to come out of this situation and improve our performance so we can bounce back.

“We have to analyse and see what’s wrong with the team. Let’s work on that aspect as a team.

“We are all disappointed. We didn’t allow many chances and they had one chance and scored. That’s the history of the game. The boys worked hard but this is football.”

Patrick Cutrone and Leander Dendoncker wasted Wolves’ best chances either side of the the break before Horta struck in the 71st minute.

Ryan Bennett gifted possession to Galeno on the halfway line and he darted down the left towards the box.

With Wolves stretched Horta was unmarked and he rifled in low past Rui Patricio from 10 yards.

The hosts never recovered and Braga are joint top of the group with Slovan Bratislava after their 4-2 win over Besiktas.

Braga boss Ricardo Sa Pinto said: “It’s important to win. We’re in a difficult and challenging group.

“We were coming looking for a positive result and one point was going to be good but that wouldn’t have stopped us trying for three.

“What I saw from the players was the belief on the pitch they could win.

“This season we haven’t got the results we deserved and we’ll talk about this game in the coming days. Now we need to enjoy the moment, it’s an historic day for Braga.”

FourFourTwo Staff

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