Daniel Podence on target to sink Leicester and keep Wolves in hunt

Dreaming is for free, as someone round these parts once said, and Daniel Podence’s second-half winner means Wolves are now two points behind fifth place in the Premier League with two games in hand and both Arsenal and West Ham, the two teams immediately above them, to play away this coming week.

Bruno Lage’s team also have two games in hand on Manchester United, who sit six points above them in the final Champions League place, and the Molineux diehards were blasting out their song about following the Wanderers around Europe again even as Leicester piled on the pressure in the closing stages, Kasper Schmeichel coming up for a corner. But Wolves, having taken the lead through Rúben Neves before Ademola Lookman equalised, held on to reclaim seventh place, and had the bonus of reintroducing one of the best players, Pedro Neto, out for a year with a fractured kneecap, for the final 10 minutes.

No team have won more Premier League games in 2022 than Wolves and, crucially, they have lost only once in the 52 league games in which they have taken the lead since winning promotion four years ago.

Leicester played strongly and created enough chances to have won but they are now winless in six domestic matches, their worst run since the latter days of Claude Puel’s reign three years ago. They have not kept a clean sheet away from home in the Premier League for more than a year since they last played at Molineux.

Brendan Rodgers, confirming Jamie Vardy is “seven to 10 days away” from returning to contention, was much encouraged by his team’s showing. “Sometimes after you lose there is disappointment or frustration but I am very enthused,” the Leicester manager said. “I have seen us starting to return to our levels of play and creativity. It is just disappointing, they had two shots from outside the box and it’s two goals.”

With a three-goal advantage to take to Denmark this Thursday for the second leg of their European Conference League second round, Leicester still have European ambitions of their own. But they are nearer the relegation zone than the top seven and gave themselves a statistical and tactical mountain to climb by conceding within nine minutes.

Neves’s superb opener gave Wolves the kind of platform they relish. The Portugal playmaker, in the form of his life, pinged a sweet crossfield pass out to Podence. When his cross was unconvincingly cleared by Daniel Amartey and Leander Dendoncker headed the ball back inside, Raúl Jiménez was allowed time to tee up Neves whose unerring first-time shot from just outside the penalty area Schmeichel could only help into the net.

This was Wolves’ first goal against Leicester in six Premier League meetings and, with the hosts having the fifth best defensive record in Europe’s top five leagues, Leicester looked there for the taking at this stage. Yet apart from the visitors suffering from the heebie‑jeebies every time Wolves had a corner, Leicester thoroughly deserved to be level by half-time.

The number of dangerous balls they fed across the face of goal was a constant source of concern for the home team, who were guilty of sitting too deep, and so it was no surprise when Lookman slid in to score his sixth goal of the season from Marc Albrighton’s low cross after Youri Tielemans’ brilliant through ball. It was only the second time in 16 games Wolves had conceded a first-half goal.

Yet it was when Rodgers’ team were clearly on top that Wolves regained the lead midway through the second half. For once when a Leicester attack broke down, Wolves had players the offensive side of the ball and Rayan Aït-Nouri did well to tease Ricardo Pereira in making inroads down the left.

Dendoncker squared the ball along the edge of the penalty area where Podence shot low into the bottom corner. There was a VAR delay to check that Schmeichel’s view had not been compromised by Jiménez’s presence before Wolves could complete their celebrations.

If it was Nuno Espírito Santo who set Wolves fans dreaming, it may be Bruno Lage who converts this into reality. “For my part, this is no time for anyone to relax,” the Wolves head coach said. “In December, January and February, we are coming with solid performances, scoring goals, winning games. If we keep doing it, with important players coming back, we can do something special.”