Navi Mumbai: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC scored twice early to bag a 2-0 victory against the Reliance Foundation Young Champs in their Premier League Next Generation Cup fixture here on Saturday.
Wolverhampton optimised their physical prowess getting a foot ahead early on in the game. They actually scored from their first attacking move itself, with fullback Marvin Kaleta putting in an accurate curling cross into the box from the left flank. The delivery created a bit of a skirmish inside the 18-yard area and Aaron Keto-Diyawa got into the end of the cross to put it into the back of the net.
The Wolves carried on their impressive goal-scoring form from the previous match as they ensured that they exerted offensive pressure from all ends of the pitch to test the RFYC backline.
RFYC coach Arata Izumi had said on Friday that he is aware that the Wolves come in with a plan to disrupt the positioning of the two opposition centre-backs. They capitalise on that by creating space for their forwards and scoring off crosses that they send in from the flanks.
The Wolves doubled their lead in the seventh minute with Nathan Fraser jumping high to nod in the ball from a cross coming in from the right flank. Fraser, who had netted twice in Wolves’ opening fixture against Everton, was at the right place at the right time again as his strike helped the visiting team gain further ground in the proceedings.
RFYC came out with some renewed spirit and vigour in the second half though. They seemed to have remodelled their plans a bit, taking the ball to wider areas to create gaps in the Wolves’ defence.
The wingers also put some good balls into the box but the team could have done with some greater efficiency upfront. Regardless, the team will be content with their improved showing towards the fag end of the game and could possibly look to build up on that in their upcoming matches in the tournament.
“I don’t think that we did something wrong or that we could have done better. Definitely, what we could have done better is the approach to this game. That is something that brought us into that difficult situation with two quick goals and made our game difficult,” RFYC coach Izumi said after the match.
“Pleased to win the game. We got a head early, which helped, a little bit with the first goal. We had spells of pressure. Probably, in the end, there was a little bit of disappointment that we couldn’t win the game clearly. I thought we kept the ball well from a possession point of view in tough conditions,” Wolves coach James Collins assessed the performance of his players.
Wolves and RFYC will next face Sudeva Delhi FC and Everton FC respectively on Tuesday.
–IANS