Mystify Soccer - Wolves retain European title

Wolves retain European title

Wolverhampton Wanderers have won the European cup for the second season in a row despite a second half scare from Novara.

Novaro, playing in their first European final have been improving a lot in recent seasons but were second favourites in the final to an experienced Wolves side. This was justified when they found themselves 3 nil down at the break.

Wolves had been untouchable and, with a couple of Karl Rose headers either side of a Jimmy Hiles tap-in, looked extremely comfortable.

Novaro's defence had struggled to stop crosses coming in from both sides but Ly Samba in particular must not have believed his luck with acres of space over and over again. It was his 3 of his crosses that caused all the damage. 2 of them were perfectly placed for Rose to find himself free between both centre halves with the simple task of placing the ball past the goalkeeper. Almost exactly in the middle of those 2, another cross caused confusion between Boere and Sansonetti which wasn't cleared correctly and ricocheted nicely into the path of Hiles who had the easiest chance he'll probably ever have.

The second half, however, was a different story. Either Novaro played without expectation or Wolves mentally switched off, but the comeback looked possible as Novaro dominated possession as much as Wolves did in the first. Once José Quitongo had rounded the keeper with half an hour remaining, it seemed just a matter of time before they got a second. Despite all the possession, they struggled to create too much in the way of actual chances and only managed to grab the second with a couple of minutes left after some great work by Aurel Jivcovic left Salvatore Cali with a chance from the edge of the box which he duly converted.

Wolves switched on and upped their game once the 2nd went in though, and cleared everything that Novaro had to offer to retain the European title.