Carabao Cup: Forest 0 Wolves 4 - Report

Buoyed by a loud away following, Wolves controlled the game from start to finish as they attacked at will against a weakened Forest side low on confidence after a difficult start to their Championship season.

But for all their dominance Wolves struggled to find the back of the net in the first half and saw several good opportunities squandered.

The game threatened to get away from them in the early stages of the second half but after finding their composure and regaining possession, two quickfire goals put them in control.

Both strikes came in the space of two minutes as Romain Saiss met a short corner routine to tap home, before Daniel Podence made it a goalscoring return from injury with a neat finish.

Forest made some attacking changes in an attempt to get back into the game but found it difficult to get hold of the ball, before Wolves added a third through Francisco Trincao.

Wolves were not done there though, and quickly added a fourth through Morgan Gibbs-White to earn their first win under their new boss.

Lage made seven changes to his side following Sunday’s Premier League loss, but kept the 3-4-3 formation.

It was the same back three but there was a change between the sticks as John Ruddy replaced Jose Sa, who travelled but did not make the squad. Youngster Andreas Sondergaard was the back-up goalkeeper on the bench.

Wing-backs Ki-Jana Hoever and Rayan Ait-Nouri also came into the team, alongside midfielder Leander Dendoncker.

The front three was completely changed from Sunday’s game, with Fabio Silva, Gibbs-White and Podence coming in. The latter made his return from injury, after having surgery to fix a groin issue in May, and made his first appearance of the season.

Luke Cundle was the only other academy talent named among the substitutes, as Wolves named a strong bench.

Chris Hughton made 10 changes to his Forest team, as he named a weakened side.

Wolves started the game fairly brightly and consistently found Ait-Nouri in acres of space on the left flank.

Their first big chance came from him, too, when he raced to the byline and crossed for Podence. The winger’s strong effort from 10 yards was saved well by Ethan Horvath.

Podence had another glorious chance shortly after when Joao Moutinho found him with a delicate dinked pass over the Forest defence. He rounded the goalkeeper but failed to get his shot away, before trying an audacious backheel that was cleared off the line.

Wolves continued to methodically wear Forest down, dominating possession and finding intricate passes through their defence. Somehow, after 23 minutes, they did not take the lead after Podence was again played in and his shot from a tight angle beat Horvath but bounced off the inside of the far post and landed into the goalkeeper’s arms.

Lage became frustrated on the sidelines when his side slowed the play down and passed sideways at times, but they were controlling the ball and the game as Forest sat exceptionally deep and offered no threat going forward. Lewis Grabban was struggling to keep hold of the ball when it was played forward and was isolated as Wolves’ defenders easily dispossessed him.

Despite Wolves’ dominance, they could not find a breakthrough and entered the break drawing 0-0.

The hosts started the second half quickly and almost took the lead when Oliver Hammond rose unmarked at the far post but headed wide.

But Wolves regained their composure and got back on the ball, before two minutes of magic just before the hour-mark put them firmly in control.

First, a short corner was worked to Hoever who whipped in a cross and found Saiss at the back post who tapped home in front of the loud travelling supporters.

Then, two minutes later, Silva expertly won the ball back and raced towards goal before passing across to Podence who calmly took a touch and then neatly finished beyond Horvath.

The Forest goalkeeper then made stops to deny Silva, Max Kilman and Saiss as Wolves looked to inflict further damage on the hosts.

From this moment it was a fairly easy task for Wolves, as they controlled the ball and dominated a Forest side who tried in vain to get back into the game.

Then, to add salt into the wounds, Trincao latched onto a neat pass from Silva to find Wolves’ third - and his first Wolves goal - before Gibbs-White quickly added a late fourth with a lovely sweeping shot from 20 yards.

The Wolves fans enjoyed the final few minutes of the game and sang their team to a comfortable 4-0 victory, putting them into round three of the Carabao Cup.

Teams

Wolves: Ruddy, Kilman, Coady, Saiss, Hoever, Moutinho, Dendoncker, Ait-Nouri (Traore, 82), Podence (Trincao, 66), Gibbs-White, Silva (Cundle, 91).

Subs not used: Sondergaard, Semedo, Neves, Jimenez.

Forest: Horvath, Back, Fernandes, Harbottle, Richardson, Garner (Cafu, 73), Fornah, Colback, Hammond (Mighten, 73), Konate, Grabban (Taylor, 61).

Subs not used: Smith, Gabriel, Figueiredo, Carvalho.