Diogo Jota has revealed his pride in his performance yesterday evening as Wolves overcame Besiktas 4-0.
The Portuguese forward came on in only the 56th minute, before scoring with his first touch of the ball merely 70 seconds or so later and then going onto the round of his hat-trick by the 68th minute.
It was a night of milestones for the 23-year-old: that was the first time he had ever scored a goal with his first touch and it means that he has scored the third-quickest hat-trick in the history of the competition.
Speaking to the press after the game, the attacker made it no secret that he was delighted with his performance, and quite rightly so.
He told the club website: “It makes me proud. I didn’t know that stat, it’s really good. It’s a story to tell my grandkids when I get old.”
“I think it was the first time that happened to me [scoring with his first touch]. That’s football, that’s why we love this game, anything can happen, but now we are focused on our next game on Sunday.
“We are playing well, we are having good results, but we just want to keep on going.”
It’s refreshing for the fans and team alike that Jota seems so chuffed with himself about these goals. After a bit of a tough ride so far this season – only scoring once in the whole campaign excluding the qualifying stages of the Europa League – he has managed to score five times in two games, which is only going to do wonders for him.
How far will Wolves go in the Europa League?
Final
Semi-final
Quarter-final
No further than the round of 16
At 23 he has so much more to give and is a deadly player on his day. With the club persisting to play him despite his lack of goals, they now have him firing for debatably one of the most defining periods of the entire season. Wolves will need their best players to be playing as well as they can when they face Spurs, Man City and Liverpool over the next month or so, so it’s great they’ve hit fifth gear just as they are beginning to face the big boys.
Despite the emphatic 4-0 win, the club still has gone through as the second seed in the group as Braga managed to win in Bratislava. The club and the fans will now be eagerly awaiting Monday’s draw where they will find out their next trip on this wondrous European journey.
