Bruno Lage pleased with 'dominant' Wolves but calls for clinical edge

Wolves were comfortable for large parts of the game, after taking a 2-0 lead, but had to hang on in injury time when Villa clawed a goal back.

But Wolves could have been out of sight after they spurned several big chances and while Lage was pleased with the result, he felt his side should have made Villa pay.

The head coach said:“It was the same feeling that we had against Leeds. In the first half we dominated everything, with and without the ball.

“We created a lot of chances and should score more goals. That’s why 2-0 is so dangerous, especially in this competition, because if you give a chance to the opponent, they have the ability to turn it around, score goals and win the game.

“I’m happy because we won, we played the way we want to play and the gameplan and strategy was perfect for this game.

“But, I know in front we have a lot of young players. I understand that with games the experience will come but we have to have that mentality to kill the game, score the third goal and don’t give hope to the opponent to come back in the game.”

After throwing away a 2-0 lead against Leeds last time out, Wolves looked nervous as they hung on to their 2-1 advantage in the final minutes against Villa.

They did stand firm to get the three points and Lage felt his side had learned from the Leeds capitulation.

He added: “It was good. We talked about it and sometimes on the bench we don’t have the opportunity to talk to our players.

“We made a mistake to play 10 against 11 in the higher position. Leeds don’t have tall strikers and we offered the space to attack. We should play in a different way but we were so involved in the game and wanted to play like we did when it was 11 against 11.

“Every time it’s the little things that help us to be better and win experience for the next time.”

Villa did have good moments in the first half, without creating many clear chances.

They then had some huge opportunities at certain points of the second half – but Wolves navigated the second 45 fairly comfortably and looked set for a quiet end to the game.

The impressive performances of Joao Moutinho and Leander Dendoncker played a big part in that as they dominated the midfield, broke up play well and often found space to launch attacks.

And with star midfielder Ruben Neves sidelined with injury, Lage was pleased to see how well Wolves dominated the second half until Villa’s late penalty gave them hope in the closing stages.

“It was hard and especially with what happened in the last game, when the emotion came, but I think we did well,” Lage said.

“The important thing is that we controlled the game very well, especially in the first half.

“We know they come to press and which men they give us to come play, but we put two men on Coutinho and every time we had the ball.

“We found Joao or Leander free to play the game and that was the plan, especially in the first half as the opposition manager doesn’t have time to adapt or change.

“The first plan was that and after to find the best players to find the best solutions to score goals.

“We did that very well. We controlled the game and were comfortable to control the game with the ball.”