IRELAND’S MATT DOHERTY hit the opening goal as Wolves cruised to a 4-0 win over Pyunik in the first leg of their Europa League third-round qualifier at the Republican Stadium.
Nuno Espirito Santo was rewarded for naming a strong starting line-up for Thursday’s match – Wolves’ first European tie outside of the United Kingdom since 1980 – as Jimenez made it back-to-back braces after starring against Crusaders in the previous round.
The Mexico striker added to his early-season goals tally with strikes either side of half-time in Armenia after Doherty had opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark.
Wolves, who faced a 6,370-mile journey home ahead of Sunday’s Premier League opener against Leicester City, gave themselves further breathing space ahead of next week’s return leg with Pyunik thanks to Ruben Neves’ late penalty.
Doherty was considered a fitness doubt ahead of the game but he was used from the off and made the breakthrough with a composed finish past Andrija Dragojevic after being slipped in by Diogo Jota.
Matt Doherty breaks the dead lock here for Wolves in Armenia, he's picked up from where he left off last season! 🔥
— Premier Sports 📺 (@PremierSportsTV) August 8, 2019
What a ball from Jota 😍#PYUWOL pic.twitter.com/LuLe295tmH
Jota fired over from a good position shortly after, though he bagged the second of his three assists by squaring to Jimenez, who fired into the roof of the net three minutes before the interval.
The third goal arrived 35 seconds into the second half as Jimenez latched on to Jota’s pass and made no mistake when one-on-one with Dragojevic.
Jimenez was denied a third by a clearance off the line, but the visitors added a fourth goal in added time as debutant substitute Patrick Cutrone was felled in the box, allowing Neves to convert from the penalty spot.
The second leg against Pyunik takes place at Molineux next Thursday, with the winners facing the winner of the tie between Serie A side Torino and Shakhtyor of Belarus in the play-off round.
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
I’m not a huge fan of the tap penalty, would lineout and maul not yield greater returns?
@brian o’leary: no guarantee you’ll win the lineout, that the other team won’t sack the maul etc. Tap penalty is the safest option to guarantee possession
@Niall Boyle: correct, but I wonder if there’s any stats available comparing the success rate of the two options?
@brian o’leary: scrum for me all day in that situation. Huge scrummaging machine pushes opposition pack backwards, secures another penalty, play of 8 around the house or 9 to the backline through one or two power phases..a thing of beauty…
@Stuart: ireland got a try from a 5 metre scrum, and two from lineout mauls v italy. We’re not converting from rucks inside 5m as much as we used to, getting held up a lot?
@brian o’leary: I’m still very in the fence about the held up law. It may because it feels like Ireland and Leinster get done by it a lot, which is maybe just my own perception, but it feels way too heavily weighted towards the defence. The attack could put together 5 or 6 great pieces of play to get themselves there and then one guy just needs to do one action to get his body under it and it undoes all of the hard attacking work and sticks you 30/40m back. That feels bad every time.
@Stuart: ireland have a poor record with ref’s and scrum penalties. If the opposition tighthead took a chainsaw to our frontrow the ref would give a penalty against porter for bleeding
Easterby’s best shot at being a 6n’s head coach permanently is with Wales. I think the IRFU will have noticed that the team has got progressively worse over the course of the championship under his watch. Is it all down to Easterby being there instead of Faz, possibly not but as an audition it definitely didn’t go well.
@Michael Corkery: maybe they’ll notice that being without their head coach for a period might not be the best idea, and will say no the next time?
@brian o’leary: Agreed. I think IRFU were wrong to sanction AF going off on Lions jolly at this time when Ireland were going for the 3 championships in a row and building towards WC….he is head coach and this is where he should be…end of. Coaching team need to look at their selection management over the entire 6n campaign.
@Dolores Scully: If the IRFU refused to sanction Farrell coaching the Lions, im pretty sure it wouldnt go down too well with Farrell.
@Jonny Miller: when will they get another chance to do 3 in a row?
Farrell should stay on his holidays if he is not committed.
@Jonny Miller:our coach could be told pre contract that its not an option?
I’m not sure why lions coach need to miss the six nations, he going to be familiar with all the players anyway, and stats can do the rest?
@brian o’leary: at the same time, in terms of succession planning, they got a look at the next man in potentially mid RWC cycle. They should have brought someone like Felix Jones in to concentrate on defense and basically have Easterby do the exact same role as Farrell but he kept his defensive role (which as a result of his attention being elsewhere fell well below the usual standard). For example if Easterby had left, wasn’t replaced and Farrell had to cover defense in his absence. Would we have seen similar regression?
@Dolores Scully: I don’t understand why AF didn’t coach the Irish side during the 6nts ..sat in the stands ? The lions squad are not even together yet…surely the lions gig is at mostly a part time gig at the moment with the administrational/planning stuff?
@Dolores Scully: Building towards a world cup. Same story every year
@Dolores Scully: rubbish there’s November series 25 &26, six nations 26 & 27 and a summer tour in 26 for Andy Farrell to be assessing options before the world cup.
@Oran Burns: maybe our best ever coach and you don’t think he’s committed?
@mark sheehan: well if you want to look at it like that the WC is a 4-year cycle and surely not getting past the quarter final should mean that building/ planning should start straight away. Also, as previously stated here, the 6n is worth a hell of a lot financially to the IRFU…needed to build the squad. And no, as head coach, the team should be front and centre…or is it another case of Sexton’s ” we lost but we won” rubbish.