Joao Palhinha on a goal that ‘means much more than three points’ and every word he said at Molineux
Joao Palhinha jumping over the advertising hoardings into a jubilant Spurs crowd after scoring his winning goal was the sight we all wanted to see at Molineux – and the midfielder told us his outpouring of emotion was for those fans.
“They especially deserve this victory,” Joao told us after his close-range strike in the 82nd minute proved enough to take a much-needed victory back to N17. Joao was also quick to praise goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, whose late, late save to deny Joao Gomes’ free-kick ‘gave us the three points.
Here’s what Joao had to say afterwards…
We could see from your reaction how much that goal meant to everyone...
Joao: “Yeah, that's my opinion as well. It means much more than three points, this victory, the goal. Of course, I celebrate with the same emotion as before, but probably more with the fans and the crowd, because we're all together on this. They especially deserve this victory. Us as well. It has been a long time, really tough times to be at the club. I think we deserved it as well in the past, some victories probably more than today. We did more to win the game than today and we didn't reach those victories, but football is like that. The important thing is we took today the three points. We need to focus on the reality that we are right now and especially focus on the main goal this season, until the end of the season, which is to stay in the Premier League.”
Talk us through the game – we had good possession, how difficult was it to break through that defensive line of Wolves?
Joao: “Yeah, it was not easy. The people that think that Wolves, it's easy, because they are in the bottom three… definitely not. You have the example of Liverpool, you have the example of Arsenal, what happened here with them. The truth is it's a team that doesn't have pressure right now, so, nothing changed for them and they are playing without any kind of pressure. Sometimes, this is more hard for the teams that will come here to this place. I think in some moments of the game we did well, especially at the end, we probably felt more anxious with the ball because we were just thinking to win that game - it was all about that.”
What about Antonin Kinsky’s save at the end?
Joao: “Amazing save. I was saying on the other flash (interview) that I give the same credit to Antonin than the importance of my goal. I can give you this example, because it was such an amazing save at the end and he gave us the three points. So, it was amazing and congratulations for all the team for what we did today.”
Take us into the dressing room. What's it like in there at the moment?
Joao: “More smiles than before, much more, because as I said, this win came too late in my opinion, because I think the team deserved to win games even in the past. I think it's much more than three points today and I think this can give us an extra boost for the rest of the season. That's the main thing. All the players, all the coaches, all the supporters as well, we're all together and we need to keep it like that until the end of the season.
Roberto De Zerbi has said since he joined that one win can change everything. We've achieved that win today - can it change everything?
Joao: “Let's see. I hope he's right. I really hope he's right. I also understand what he's saying and I also hope that this will happen. I think we deserve it. So, let's focus now on the Villa game. It'll be a hard one, but the same objective to win the game because it's like four finals and it doesn't matter if you play well or not, we are in the position that we just need to win the games and that's the reality.”