With Wolves facing the bottom of La Liga on Thursday night for their first tie of the Europa League knockout stage, they have to be considered favourites.
While anything can happen in knockout football, Espanyol have been dealt a further blow after two of their key players have been ruled out. Raul de Tomas – the club’s record signing made in the January window – will not be available for Thursday’s fixture, while Marc Roca will also not be okay to play, as per Birmingham Live.
Raul de Tomas joined in the first week of January for a fee around £18.45m and in just four games for the club has already become their top goalscorer in the division thus far. His four goals in as many games would have had Nuno Espirito Santo concerned, but now it seems as if they will not be seeing him until at least the second leg.
Marc Roca is likely to be felt just as hard. The midfielder has played the second most amount of minutes this season for the Barcelona-based side, chipping in with two goals and one assist. Playing in either a defensive midfielder or normal midfield, no one in the squad has made as many passes per game as he has, averaging 49.5 per game, with 4.6 of those being longer balls.
How will Wolverhampton Wanderers fare against Espanyol?
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With Wolves still competing in the league for a potential Champions League place next time around, they will be hoping that their slim squad does not pick up any injuries or complications.
So far the club has been able to juggle the Europa League and the Premier League really well, so we should be expecting a full-strength Wolves side in Barcelona in a few days time.
Fans will be licking their lips for this one. They would have been waiting for this stage since they qualified last May – and now it’s up for them to perform.
Just seen the fans of Athletico lift their team throughout the game v. Liverpool. Molineux needs to be at full throttle on Thursday.