Wolverhampton vs Braga Predictions

Wolves enjoyed a fairytale return to the Premier League last season as their talented squad romped to a 7th place finish, granting them Europa League qualification and providing Nuno Espirito Santos with a platform to build upon for the future.

However, the new campaign isn’t going quite so smoothly, and there’s some talk of a case of the dreaded second-season-syndrome floating around Molineux right now. Of course, it’s still early days, but there are some worrying symptoms.

Wolves’ performance at the weekend is one of them. They were excellent when faced with top 6 opposition last season, but Chelsea arrived on Saturday afternoon and completely dismantled their defensive line. The end result was a 5-2 win for the visiting Blues, which follows on from their 3-2 defeat at Everton and increases the concern surrounding their usually stalwart back line.

Indeed, the hosts have conceded 13 goals in their last 6 matches, and their defensive frailty is beginning to outweigh their admittedly productive attack. That being said, they should have enough about them to trouble Braga on Thursday.

The Portuguese visitors haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 15 Europa League away matches, and before the international break they were demolished at home to Benfica.

Braga have managed to score in 5 of their last 6 competitive away games though, so we do fancy them to trouble the Wolves defence. With both teams finding the net in each of Wanderers’ last 6 matches and in 5 of Braga’s last 6 Europa League games, backing Both Teams to Score here looks a great choice.

In the end, we are expecting Wolves’ quality to shine through on Thursday. They have easily dealt with everything the Europa League has thrown at them so far, so we’re backing a 2-1 win for the hosts here too.