Nuno's verdict on Wolves

Nuno Espirito Santo praised the players for putting their penalty practice into action at Molineux on Wednesday night.

Having let a 2-0 lead slip through our fingers in our Carabao Cup third round tie against Wolves, we finally got the job done in the shootout, as strikes from Harry Kane, Sergio Reguilon and Bryan Gil – coupled with an important save from Pierluigi Gollini – gave us a 3-2 win and booked a fourth-round trip to Burnley next month.

Earlier goals from Tanguy Ndombele and Harry had been cancelled out by Leander Dendoncker and Daniel Podence as the 90 minutes ended 2-2.

Nuno, returning to Molineux for the second time already this season, said the players’ efforts to practice penalties on the training ground prior to the game led to the victory, also praising his goalkeeper coach Rui Barbosa for preparing Pierluigi in detail for the shootout.

“Penalties is not luck, penalties we have to work on and the boys really practice, they did it very well and Gollini was good,” he said.

“It’s part of the game so we have to work on it, of course we had the input of (Rui) Barbosa (goalkeeper coach) on the penalties to give the info to Gollini – that helped as well.”

Reflecting on the game as a whole, Nuno said: “I think it was a good game, well played. We started very well, playing really nicely, we scored two beautiful goals, we had clear chances, then a set-piece against us and something that we really need to work on and improve – we cannot repeat the same mistakes over again. To learn and to grow, we must avoid and minimise these mistakes because that's what makes the game harder. Honestly, the way we were controlling the game, we didn't allow anything until the time we conceded. Then, again, we lost a little bit of control, in the second half we started strong, we had chances to score but Wolves at home, it's tough, we had to defend and then finally the penalties.

“We stayed (in the game at 2-2), John Ruddy made an amazing save with the header from Harry – I'm still wondering how he could do it! We had chances but we stayed strong, at Molineux it's always tough.”

Nuno on Spurs TV