João Gomes and Cunha’s quickfire double gives Wolves win at Blackburn
On a hale and blustery north Lancashire day Wolves showed Blackburn how to finish and thus secured one of the fifth round’s numbered balls in the draw on Monday.
John Eustace’s men were not schooled by their Premier League visitors but the sport is simple: if chances are spurned and the foe are ruthless they are triumphant, and so the six-time winners are out.
Related: Blackburn Rovers 0-2 Wolves: FA Cup – live reaction
And Rovers may soon require a new head coach because Eustace has been approached by Derby, whose offer is understood to include a salary hike. Afterwards this man of the Midlands hardly sounded unenamoured of moving back for work despite the Rams being third-bottom and his side sixth in the Championship.
“If they’ve made an official approach my first conversation will be with the owners and see where to take it from there,” he said.
“I’m away from my family a lot, working my socks off to make sure we are competitive. When I came here we were on the way down and now we’re on the way up [so] we need to discuss with the owners.”
Wolves, famous gold strip vivid in the grey afternoon, hoped to stroke possession about yet the wish was disrupted by a Eustace unit that featured three bright attackers behind Emmanuel Dennis. On the right, Amario Cozier-Duberry cut inside and his shot deflected into Sam Johnstone’s hands. On the opposite flank, Augustus Kargbo, on full debut, swept in, executed a one-two with Yuri Ribeiro, and blasted over.
Vítor Pereira’s XI included his alpha-forward Matheus Cunha. Soon, class oozed from the Brazilian’s footwork down the left: he found Rodrigo Gomes, who relayed to Hwang Hee‑chan, whose effort was blocked.
In the elemental conditions the contest’s punch and counter-blow warmed the senses. Kargbo’s pace was chief as he motored down his corridor, casting Jean-Ricner Bellegarde as a spectator. Santiago Bueno, also trailing, had to chop down the No 47.
What ensued was a lucky escape for the visitors. John Buckley drifted the free-kick into the far post, Johnstone was helpless, Dom Hyam leaped and nodded home but was flagged offside. Replays showed he was almost certainly not but, as with Harry Maguire’s clear offside winner for Manchester United against Leicester, no VAR meant the decision stood.
At this juncture, Rovers’ gameplan could be called Find Kargbo because the jet-heeled forward was an ongoing menace whom Eustace’s men looked to locate constantly. He collected on halfway and launched a raid that took him clean into Wolves’ area. After two mesmeric body-swerves he appeared to be felled by Emmanuel Agbadou. Kargbo appealed for a penalty but was booked by Lewis Smith. Replays proved the referee correct: the player hit a foot into the Wolves defender’s boot and induced the fall.
Kargbo’s day was about to plummet further. Wolves, passing out from the back, fed him the ball but a miscontrol ceded possession and Wolves pounced. Hwang relayed to Gonçalo Guedes, who passed to João Gomes: the shot was aimed low and left and close to Balazs Toth, but the goalkeeper allowed the ball underneath him and in.
What followed was those in gold celebrating and, in quick time, their second. Again Rovers imploded, allowing Cunha to finish a front‑to‑back sequence. Up went a punt along the inside-left channel. Collecting centrally, by the Rovers D, Cunha shifted play right, continued in this direction and, when he received once more, the strike was rapier-like, going across Toth into the far corner.
At the break Rovers, if honest, would have cursed themselves for self‑inflicting the damage. A Buckley cross clutched by Johnstone, Dennis’s burst on to a Kargbo pass and Todd Cantwell blazing over informed Wolves that the game was not over. Yet in all these forays, final-third profligacy was Rovers’ flaw.
An abacus would help to keep track of the misses, as Cantwell’s free-kick was next palmed away by Johnstone, before Eustace replaced the No 8 with Makhtar Gueye. Rovers controlled the ball but Wolves controlled them, largely allowing possession in their half’s middle third but no closer to Johnstone.
As the seconds ticked away it frustrated Blackburn and a wild 40-yard shot by Buckley was emblematic. At 2-0 up and cruising Wolves had the luxury of patience regarding when to move to prise their hosts open.
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Two illustrations came. Rodrigo Gomes probed down the left, cut back on to his right, and stood the ball up for Marshall Munetsi, whose glancing header nearly gave the substitute a dream debut. A little later, Cunha meandered in from the same flank, Rovers’ rearguard slumbered, and the 25-year-old’seffort was palmed out by Toth. At the corner the ball bounced to Munetsi but his radar was, again, off.
The story of Rovers’ day, in microcosm, was Gueye failing to beat Johnstone, who saved. Like lightning, Wolves moved upfield and Pablo Sarabia also disappointed in front of goal. At the final whistle this was Rovers’ main emotion. Not for Pereira.
“The most important is to answer this question: ‘Are you proud of your work?’ And I’m proud of my players,” said the Wolves head coach, who added that Hwang sustained a suspect hamstring issue the player does not think is serious.
