‘From Berlin to Belgrade and Barcelona: The story of Wolves in Europe’ by club historian, Pete Crump
As a founder member of English league football, Wolves are also pioneers of the European game, with the club having played a vital part in the formation of competitive continental football.
Floodlit friendly fixtures at Molineux ensured the Wolves name was known across the world as well as being the catalyst for the creation of the European Cup.
This is part 4 of the series on Wolves in Europe. To read part 1, focusing on the Old Gold’s early European Cup impact, please click here, and for part 2, reflecting on the run to the 1972 UEFA Cup final, click here, and for part 3, which covers our other UEFA Cup campaigns and the Anglo-Italian Cup, click here.
Europa League 2019/20
Not since October 1980 had we been in full competitive European action, but the 39-year wait finally came to an end in 2019 as Wolverhampton Wanderers returned to the European stage.
In the 2018/19 season, Wolves were back in the Premier League for the first time since 2011/12, finishing seventh, but due to the FA Cup winners being Manchester City who had already qualified for the Champions League, their Europa League qualification place went down to the seventh placed side, meaning Wolves would begin their journey in the Europa League second qualifying round.
Wolves supporters travelled to Northern Ireland, Armenia, Italy, Turkey, Slovakia, Portugal and Spain during this campaign, sadly, fans could not travel to Greece or Germany due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The class of 2019/20 led by Nuno Espirito Santo took us on an incredible journey all the way to the quarter-final, where we lost to the eventual winners, Sevilla, who have an excellent pedigree in the Europa League. An amazing journey, and one which will live in the memories of Wolves supporters for a very long time.
Our first game was at Molineux versus Crusaders of Northern Ireland and it was played in scorching heat that was more reminiscent of southern Spain. The late Diogo Jota scored our first goal, thus becoming the first Wolves player since Mel Eves to score for Wolves in Europe.
Jota’s goal came in the 39th minute before Ruben Vinagre made it two in the final minute, which meant Wolves took a nice lead to Belfast. Despite Crusaders being part-time, it was a hugely impressive display and by no means an easy win for Wolves.
Wolves then travelled to Belfast and won 4-1 at Seaview. There was a slight scare as Wolves went 1-0 down through a Ryan Bennett own goal in the 14th minute, but one minute later, Raul Jimenez pulled a goal back, before Wolves comfortably won in the end to progress to the next stage.
Europa League 2019/20 | Second qualifying round, first leg
Thursday 25th July 2019
Wolves 2 (Jota 37, Vinagre 90)
Crusaders 0
Attendance | 29,708
Europa League 2019/20 | Second qualifying round, second leg
Thursday 1st August 2019
Crusaders 1 (Bennett og 14)
Wolves 4 (Jimenez 15, 45, Bennett 38, Forsythe og 77)
Attendance | 2,700
Wolves win 6-1 on aggregate
Next up, Wolves went on a journey a lot further afield than Northern Ireland, travelling to Yerevan in Armenia to face FC Pyunik. A total of 48 Wolves supporters made the 6,370-mile round trip to Yerevan, but sadly, there were some issues, as Wolves fans had two flags stolen in the stadium. Wolves beat Pyunik 4-0 to take control of the tie, in a game which also saw Patrick Cutrone make his debut.
Wolves were also dominant in the home tie over the Armenians too. Again, it was another 4-0 win, with this game seeing the debuts of Jesus Vallejo and Pedro Neto. It was the Portuguese youngster who also scored the first goal of the game as Wolves went through 8-0 on aggregate.
Europa League 2019/20 | Third qualifying round, first leg
Thursday 8th August 2019
FC Pyunik 0
Wolves 4 (Doherty 29, Jimenez 42, 46, Neves 90 pen)
Attendance | 13,050
Europa League 2019/20 | Third qualifying round, second leg
Thursday 15th August 2019
Wolves 4 (Neto 54, Gibbs-White 58, Vinagre 64, Jota 87)
FC Pyunik 0
Attendance | 29,391
Wolves win 8-0 on aggregate
In the play-off round, Wolves took a trip to a stadium and a city where we had played before in our European adventure, returning to the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino. This was the same venue, albeit a redeveloped one, where we had played Juventus in the first leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-final in 1972. This time, Wolves faced Torino and won 3-2 in Italy, coming home with a very handy result against a tricky opponent.
Wolves also won at Molineux against Torino, claiming a 2-1 victory on the night and progressing into the Europa League proper, where they would play six group games.
Europa League 2019/20 | Play-off round, first leg
Thursday 22nd August 2019
Torino 2 (de Silvestri 61, Belotti 80 pen)
Wolves 3 (Bremer 43 og, Jota 59, Jimenez 72)
Attendance | 24,091
Europa League 2019/20 | Play-off round, second leg
Thursday 29th August 2019
Wolves 2 (Jimenez 30, Dendoncker 59)
Torino 1 (Belotti 58)
Attendance | 29,222
Wolves win 5-3 on aggregate
The group stages await
Group K of the Europa League would see Wolves play three clubs, home and away in the mini-league, with the Old Gold taking on Braga of Portugal, Besiktas of Turkey and Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia.
Wolves’ first game was at Molineux against Braga, but the hosts sadly lost 1-0 on the night in a tough test under the lights. Ricardo Horta’s goal in the 71st minute was the difference between the two sides.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Thursday 19th September 2019
Wolves 0
Braga 1 (Horta 71)
Attendance | 28,314
After Braga, Wolves travelled to Istanbul to face Besiktas at Vodafone Park. The game looked like it was going to be a goalless draw until Willy Boly scored a last-minute winner deep into injury time, which meant Wolves returned home with all three points. Wolves that day donned the black away shirt with the gold shorts and gold socks, a combination that has only been seen a few times in our history.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Thursday 3rd October 2019
Besiktas 0
Wolves 1 (Boly 90 +3)
Attendance | 22,670
Next up was another tricky trip to Bratislava in Slovakia to face Slovan. Wolves officially could only take 200 fans that day as the game was supposedly to be played behind closed doors due to the home team being punished for discriminatory banners and songs in previous rounds.
The game ended up being open to schools and teachers, and one teacher could bring around six children each from a school, hence the ground ended up being pretty much full, with only 200 Wolves supporters officially there.
Despite going 1-0 down after 11 minutes, Wolves fought back to win the game with Romain Saiss and Raul Jimenez helping us turn the game around. Wolves were also down to 10 with three minutes to go as the late Jota got a second booking in the 87th minute.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Slovan Bratislava 1 (Sporar 11)
Wolves 2 (Saiss 58, Jimenez 64 pen)
Attendance | 20,333
Wolves then played Slovan at Molineux, beating the Slovakians in a game which was held up by 12 minutes in the first half after Vernon De Marco was accidentally kicked in the head by Raul Jimenez as he attempted a bicycle kick. It was also Jimenez who scored the winner in injury time.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Thursday 7th November 2019
Wolves 1 (Jimenez 90+2)
Slovan Bratislava 0
Attendance | 29,789
Wolves then travelled to the Estadio Municipal de Braga to face the only team that could stop Nuno’s men from winning the group, although the visitors really did need to win the game if they were to finish top.
This game is remembered for many reasons, including the horrendous rain that was experienced early in the evening, and there was talk at one point of a postponement. The Wolves supporters also did experience plenty at the Estadio Municipal inside and outside of the stadium too, with the game being very entertaining and end-to-end.
Horta put Braga 1-0 up after six minutes before Jimenez equalised shortly after, although Wolves then scored the next two goals of the game via Matt Doherty in the 34th minute and Adama Traore in the 35th minute. Wolves looked to be in control, but sadly conceded two goals in the second half and the game ended 3-3.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Thursday 28th November 2019
Braga 3 (A Horta 6, Paulinho 65, Fransergio 79)
Wolves 3 (Jimenez 14, Doherty 34, Traore 35)
Attendance | 12,058
Our final group game was against Besiktas at Molineux. Wolves won comfortably 4-0 that evening, with Jota bagging a hat-trick. Jota became the first Wolves player to score a European hat-trick since Derek Dougan on 29th September 1971 against Academica Coimbra.
Leander Dendoncker scored the other goal, while the game also saw young American Owen Otasowie make his debut and academy graduate Taylor Perry also played that night for the final time for Wolves.
Europa League 2019/20 | Group K
Thursday 12th December 2019
Wolves 4 (Jota 58, 63, 69, Dendoncker 67)
Besiktas 0
Attendance | 27,866
Braga’s 79th-minute equaliser in our penultimate group game cost Wolves the chance to win the group and if Wolves had held on, we would have been top with one game to go. Instead, it meant that we needed to beat Besiktas at home, as we did, but we also needed Slovan Bratislava to beat Braga or gain a draw. Slovan and Besiktas had been out of the running for some time as Braga and Wolves were the two strongest teams in the group by quite some way.
Slovan and Besiktas only won one match between them, and that was against each other. Besiktas did not pick up any more points, Slovan only picked up one more, a useful draw in Braga. Although Braga beat Slovan 4-2 in their final game in Bratislava to top the group, which meant Wolves would finish second on 13 points behind Braga on 14.
Into the knockouts
Wolves made it to the knockout stages of the competition and our next opponents in the intermediate stage were Espanyol. This meant Wolves would return to Barcelona, bringing back some memories of the famous European Cup tie in 1960.
First up, however, was the first leg at Molineux. Diogo Jota also made history becoming the only Wolves player to score two hat-tricks in Europe. This means only Jota and Derek Dougan have scored hat-tricks for Wolves in Europe. It was Ruben Neves who got the other goal in the convincing 4-0 win.
Wolves then travelled to Barcelona. Sadly, this was the final trip for many supporters due to the Covid-19 pandemic which was about to hit the world. The game was another entertaining affair, with Wolves losing 3-2 on the night, but progressing 6-3 on aggregate. A large contingent of Wolves supporters travelled to Espanyol and is highly likely to be the biggest number of fans who travelled during our European run along with Braga.
Europa League 2019/20 | Round of 32, first leg
Thursday 20th February 2020
Wolves 4 (Jota 15, 67, 81, Neves 52)
Espanyol 0
Attendance | 30,435
Europa League 2019/20 | Round of 32, second leg
Thursday 27th February 2020
Espanyol 3 (Calleri 16, 57, 90)
Wolves 2 (Traore 22, Doherty 79)
Attendance | 14,525
Wolves win 6-3 on aggregate
Wolves were next drawn against Greek side Olympiacos, firstly travelling to Athens to face Olympiacos at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium. This game was played behind closed doors due to concerns about the coronavirus, although some Wolves supporters did make the trip to Athens. Many had booked flights and travel arrangements immediately after the Espanyol trip, and although national lockdowns had not been declared in either country, Greece announced one the day after the game and the UK followed on 23rd March 2020.
Despite playing behind closed doors, Wolves returned from Athens with a useful 1-1 draw having gone 1-0 behind, but Pedro Neto equalised in the 67th minute. However, what everyone did not quite realise was how long we would have to wait to play the second leg.
Wolves had already played their final Premier League game against Brighton prior to flying out to Athens, and their next fixture – due to the lockdown – would not be until 20th June against West Ham United.
The second leg at Molineux against Olympiacos did not take place until 6th August 2020, also played behind closed doors, but Wolves won 1-0 with Jimenez scoring the goal, meaning Wolves progressed 2-1 on aggregate.
Europa League 2019/20 | Round of 16, first leg
Thursday 12th March 2020
Olympiacos 1 (El Arabi 54)
Wolves 1 (Neto 67)
Attendance | 0
Europa League 2019/20 | Round of 16, second leg
Thursday 6th August 2020
Wolves 1 (Jimenez)
Olympiacos 0
Attendance | 0
Wolves win 2-1 on aggregate
Due to the global pandemic, the Europa League final stages were then played as a mini-tournament in Germany to finish the tournament off, and they were also all played as one-off matches.
Wolves would take part in the quarter-finals in Germany and would face Sevilla of Spain. Shakhtar Donetsk, Basel, Manchester United, FC Copenhagen, Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen completed the line-up in Germany.
Sadly, Wolves departed the Europa League at the hands of Sevilla, who were then managed by a future manager of ours, Julen Lopetegui, losing 1-0. Jimenez missed a penalty to go 1-0 up in the 11th minute, the only time he has missed from the spot so far of his Wolves career. This game also saw the final appearance of Diogo Jota in a Wolves shirt.
Europa League 2019/20 | Quarter-final
Tuesday 11th August 2020
Wolves 0
Sevilla 1 (Ocampos 88)
Attendance | 0
Sevilla did go on to win the tournament, beating Manchester United in the semi-final and Inter Milan in the final. Sevilla have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League on the most occasions with an impressive record.
Prior to 2005/06 they had never appeared in a final, but they have since won the competition in 2006, 2007, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020 and 2023. Their first win in 2006 came against Middlesbrough in Eindhoven, while in 2016 they beat Liverpool in Basel. They have also never been runners-up, and every time they have made the final, they have won.
Although Wolves would finish seventh in the Premier League once again in 2019/20, it was eighth placed Arsenal who qualified for the Europa League that season having lifted the FA Cup, meaning we were to miss out on successive seasons in Europe.
Wolves had to wait 39 years to experience competitive European football, but fingers crossed it won’t be such long a time until we are rubbing shoulders with the continents elite once more.
Wolves historian Pete Crump’s weekly articles reflecting on a range of topics from the club’s proud past will be available throughout the 150th anniversary season on wolves.co.uk.
