Wolves will want to turn around their 1-0 home loss to Braga in Thursday’s reverse fixture to guarantee a place in the knockout stages of the European competition.

However, should Wolves fail to win, a victory over the Premier League outfit will mean Braga will progress as Group K winners.

The English side have showed to deal well with demands from different competitions, being able to maintain their priorities and ambitions on the domestic and European football.

Progression to the last 32 of Europa League solely depends on Nuno’s men, with a positive result on Thursday night, it will be enough to give the West Midlands an advantage over third placed Slovan Bratislava.

Although, regardless of which side Nuno selects, Braga are expected to put on a fight in hope to extend their group advantage and therefore have every reason to consider themselves as favourites against their English opponents.

Team News:

For Sa Pinto’s side, he will have to decide between Eduardo and Matheus as both goalkeepers have been given game time recently.

Wilson Eduardo who has lately been featuring as a substitute will push to make the starting team, having contributed to five goals this season.

As for Wolves, Ryan Bennett did not make the trip to Portugal with his team mates as he is close on returning from a groin injury.

Espirito Santo may opt to give Joao Moutinho a rest and bring in Romain Saiss into a midfield role, while Max Kilman and Ruben Vinagre are expected to get bought in.

In other news, Portuguese midfielder, Moutinho has extended his commitment with the club by signing until 2022.

Possible line-ups:

Braga: Matheus, Esgaio, Viana, Wallace, Sequeira, Fransergio, Palhinha, Galeno, Andre Horta, Ricardo Hora, Paulinho.

Wolves: Patricio, Dendoncker, Coady, Kilman, Jonny, Saiss, Neves, Vinagre, Neto, Cutrone, Jimenez.

Braga form: WLDWWW

Wolves form: DLDWWW

What the managers had to say:

Having lost 1-0 at home in the first leg, Nuno assured that what happened before “is in the past.”

 “What happened in the past is the past, not a reference, what we know is we’re going to face a very good team, with a good manager and good players, in a tough environment that we want to compete in. We have 6,000 of our fans here in Braga and we feel good.”

“We are doing OK. There’s a lot of room to improve, as a club, as a team. It requires a lot of work, but this is what we’ve been doing since day one, since we started in the Championship three years ago. Every day is a chance to improve and this is what we want to do all together.

“We know we’re facing a tough schedule, so all the details we can give to the player are the most important thing.”

Despite Wolves only needing a point to progress, Nuno affirmed their “approach won’t be different.”

 “Because a draw will be enough for both teams to qualify. For sure, it’s going to be a tough game, Braga are an excellent team, they have tremendous players, I’m sure the fans will produce a wonderful atmosphere so I’m looking forward to the match.

“The approach is always the same. Compete well, prepare of the game with the maximum attention that we have, trying to give details to the players.”

Sa Pinto stated the importance of being top of the group:

“Our main desire is to progress (onto the next round). If we can progress in first place, that’s even better. We want to guarantee this, tomorrow (Thursday).

“In the last eleven games, we won eight, drew two and lost one. We are doing well. The demand has been immense but we have answered well. In the league we gave a good response in the last games. 

“Now we have to focus on Wolverhampton, if we win, fantastic. But maybe neither team will need to win to progress. If we get a result that permits us to progress, we’ll be happy anyway.

“Our European journey so far has been going well and I hope it stays like that.”

When and Where?

Group K matchday five out of six is being played at Estadio Municipal de Braga with kick-off scheduled for 5:55pm.

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