Steve Bull braced for Wolves' Greek test
Wolves legend Steve Bull insists they cannot take Olympiacos lightly on Thursday – with the clash now even more important to Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
The onus is firmly on beating the Greek side at Molineux as Wolves look to keep their European dream for next season alive.
Nuno’s charges were denied another Europa opportunity as Arsenal won Saturday’s FA Cup final to grab a place in the qualifiers.
Now, their only hope is to win this term’s Europa, which would seal a Champions League berth, but Olympiacos are a tough obstacle and 306-goal hero Bull said: “It would have obviously been ideal for Chelsea to win it, so we could just enjoy the Olympiacos game and have no pressure on us.
“But they didn’t – Arsenal played well and deserved to win – and now we are under more pressure to perform on Thursday.
“We’ve got Olympiacos and it will be tough to get through this one. It’s not going to be straightforward.”
Wolves, having finished seventh in the Premier League, were looking for a Chelsea victory at Wembley and things got off to a good start as Christian Pulisic scored for the Blues.
The Gunners were the better side for large spells of the game, though, and ended up winning as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang bagged a brace.
So, the attention turns to Olympiacos – who will be without goalkeeper Jose Sa because of an injury picked up in training – after the first leg ended 1-1 in Greece, back in March.
If Wolves win, they will head to Germany for the mini-tournament, which is seeing out the competition – with the quarter-finals and semi-finals due to be one-legged instead of two, as they would usually be.
Either Sevilla or Roma would be the opponents in the quarters on Tuesday, August 11 in Duisburg.
The semi-final would then be on Sunday, August 16 in Cologne, while the final is also taking place in Cologne on Friday, August 21.
But Bull insists Wolves must stick to their game-by-game philosophy and avoid the temptation to look ahead.
“They’ve just got to concentrate on this, take it one game at a time as they always do, and then think about Germany should it come to that,” he added.
“Ultimately, they’ve just got to carry on doing the job they have been doing all season. Work hard and see how far we can go.”
