Wolves 1 (Guedes 81) RC Lens 3 (Said 60, Machado 69, 83)
A spate of second half goals saw Wolves fall to a pre-season defeat to Ligue 1 side RC Lens under the lights at the Pallet-Track Bescot Stadium.
Following a first-half void of goals and clear-cut chances, the game burst into life after the break, with the visitors firing three goals past Dan Bentley in the Old Gold net. Wolves’ consolation finish came from the boot of Goncalo Guedes, who finished off an individual move from distance in between Lens’ trio of finishes.
Wolves started the brightest of the two sides with Ki-Jana Hoever causing trouble down the right, but it was from the left when the first chance fell the host’s way, as Hugo Bueno and Jean-Ricner Bellegarde – playing against his former club – linked with a cross finding its way onto the head of Fer Lopez in the Lens box, but the forward was unable to divert the ball on target.
Bellegarde’s crossing was troubling the Lens defence, with the Frenchman almost placing a free-kick onto Toti’s head inside the opposition penalty area, but it was just taken away from him at the last second by one of the covering defenders.
Lens had a chance of their own inside the opening 15 minutes when Martin Satriano got to the byline, made his way past Matt Doherty and Emmanuell Agbadou but the forward could only fire into the side netting from a very tight angle.
Jorgen Strand Larsen had his first opportunity to get a shot at goal just before the half hour mark after linking well with Lopez, and after latching onto a backheel from the summer signing, the Norwegian was unable to keep an effort on the stretch from going well over the crossbar.
Half-time | Wolves 0-0 Lens
Vitor Pereira’s looked to take the game to Lens after the break following the visitors making wholesale changes, with Bellegarde testing the keeper with a free-kick, but the hosts should have fallen behind moments later when a cross from the right by Tom Pouilly found Wesley Said yards out from goal, but he could only fire his shot high and wide of the Wolves goal.
That missed opportunity for the Ligue 1 side seemed to put some life into Wolves who were soon back up the other end and had a penalty shout as substitute Rodrigo Gomes appeared to be caught in the box, but the referee waved away the appeals. Moments later, Strand Larsen fired his curling effort over from about 20 yards out.
After his miss just after the break, Said made no mistake when he got onto the end of another Pouilly cross, getting ahead of his man at the near post to turn the ball past Dan Bentley from close range. In the wake of the goal, Wolves made a raft of pre-planned changes on the hour mark as six substitutes made their way onto the pitch.
Lens doubled their lead with 20 minutes remaining from a snapshot effort courtesy of substitute Deiver Machado. The left-back was played into space 30 yards out from goal and hit a powerful effort which beat Bentley and found its way into the net. It was almost three for the French side moments later when Seko Fofana beat several turquoise shirts and got a shot at goal, but Bentley was able to get down and divert his attempt away from trouble.
Pereira’s men kept pushing to get something out of the contest, and Guedes decided to take matters into his own hands. After getting himself into space, the Portuguese let fly from distance and buried his shot into the bottom corner. But straight from the restart, Lens reclaimed their two-goal advantage, when Said got the other side of Rodrigo Gomes before crossing to Machado who turned the ball past Bentley from close range for his second of the evening.
Full-time | Wolves 1-3 Lens
Wolves | Sa (Bentley 45), Hoever (R Gomes 45), Doherty, Agbadou (S Bueno 60), Toti, H Bueno (Lima 60), Andre (Kalajdzic 82), J Gomes (Munetsi 60), Lopez (Guedes 60), Bellegarde (Chirewa 60), Strand Larsen (Hwang 60).
Unused subs | Johnstone, Mane.
Lens | Gurtner, Aguilar, Baidoo, Sotoca, Satriano, Udol, Sarr, Thomasson, Guilavogui, Sylla, Bermont.
Subs | Machado, Bulatovic, Ojediran, Diouf, Zaroury, Said, Sagnan, Agbonifo, Diallo, Antonio, Pouilly, Ganiou, Fofana, Diliwidi, Delplace, Jourdren.
