Pedro Neto grabs ‘important’ away goal in Wolves’ Europa League draw

Wolves skipper Conor Coady admitted their draw at Olympiacos was strange but praised the team for remaining professional.

Pedro Neto grabbed a precious away goal in the 1-1 Europa League last 16 first leg tie in Athens on Thursday.

It cancelled out Youssef El Arabi’s opener which came after Ruben Semedo was sent off in the first half for the hosts.

The game was played after Wolves failed in an appeal to UEFA to get the tie postponed when Olympiacos owner Evangelos Marinakis confirmed he had coronavirus on Tuesday.

It was behind closed doors because of the outbreak and Coady conceded it was a surreal time.

“It was a strange experience, we didn’t want to get distracted by what’s going on, this is a massive tie for this club,” he told BT Sport.

“We put ourselves on the pitch and we look forward to the next one. We want to push, want to improve.

“It was a tough game, it went harder when they had 10 men. We needed to move the ball faster but it’s a draw away from home.

“They are a good team, they have played in the Champions League this season. We have scored an away goal which is important and we will look forward to it.”

Wolves are due to travel to West Ham in the top flight on Sunday, although the Premier League will hold an emergency club meeting on Friday regarding fixtures after Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta tested positive for coronavirus.

“Now we’re going to think about West Ham but we keep on working. Now we have West Ham and hopefully next Thursday we’ll play again,” added boss Nuno Espirito Santo.

“There’s a long way to go, a lot of matches but we’ll go back to the Premier League and we have to rest well, recover. The schedule is very tight.”