Wolverhampton Wanderers will play hosts to Slovan Bratislava at the Molineux Stadium on Thursday night hoping to pick up a victory in the UEFA Europa League. Nuno Espirito Santo’s players will come into this game on the back of an impressive 1-1 draw versus Arsenal last weekend.
The midweek clash against the Slovak outfit is a must-win game for Wolves if they intend to secure a passage through to the knockout stages of the competition. The West Midlands outfit currently have six points from their opening three matches in Europe. Therefore, a victory versus Bratislava could take them above Braga in the group table.
Nuno Santo is expected to opt for a 3-5-2 formation and will tinker with his first-team a bit to cope with the absence of Diogo Jota and Willy Boly.
3-5-2 Wolves Predicted Lineup To Face Slovan Bratislava
Defence
Rui Patricio will start in between the sticks for Nuno Santo’s side, hoping to keep a clean sheet in front of the home supporters. The Portuguese custodian has failed to keep a shut-out in any of his past four starts across all competitions.
Wolves might lineup with the centre-back trio of Roman Saiss, Conor Coady and Max Kilman at the Molineux Stadium in midweek. All three defenders will have to work hard on winning the ball back so that the home team can dominate proceedings against the Slovak giants.
Willy Boly is injured and will not feature in this game while Matt Doherty is a major doubt and is unlikely to recover in time to play in this Europa League encounter.
Midfield
Nuno Santo might be inclined towards picking a strong central midfield with Joao Moutinho, Ruben Neves and Morgan Gibbs-White expected to start on Thursday night. The trio will need to breakdown the opposition attacks and orchestrate some decent goal-scoring chances for the front players.
Ruben Vinagre will look to put in a tireless shift down the left flank while Adama Traore focusses on using his blistering pace to get to the by-line on the right.
Attack
Patrick Cutrone could get an opportunity to lead the charge for Wolves alongside Raul Jimenez up top. Jimenez managed to find the back of the net in the reverse fixture versus Bratislava so he will be confident about repeating a similar display in midweek.
Diogo Jota will be suspended for this encounter after receiving a red card against Ján Kozák’s side in the Europa League last month.
