A Raul Jimenez stoppage-time penalty gave Wolves a point in what looked like a lost game against Blackburn.
The Championship provided an entertaining 90+ minutes full of drama in the opening match of the 2026/27 season.
Wolves and Blackburn shared the spoils at Molineux. Marshall Munetsi opened the scoring 18 minutes into the game but it didn’t take long for the Rovers to make it 1-1 through Sean McLoughlin. Andri Gudjohnsen then put the visitors 2-1 up early on in the second half before Raul Jimenez equalised in stoppage time.
Still, Blackburn gave the hosts a run for the money and will take more positives than Wolves from this encounter.
How did Blackburn make it difficult for Wolves?
Defensive strategy
Tony Mowbray set his side up in a 4-4-2 out of possession. Both centre-forwards (Gudjohnsen and Todd Cantwell) extremely close to each other down the middle while the rest of the team marked in man-oriented fashion.
The idea was to remove Andre from Wolves’ build-ups and let the centre-backs shoulder the responsibility for taking the ball forward.
So much so that the Brazilian ranked only eigth in touches among all players, despite playing a central role for the team that had more possession.
Either that or have Munetsi and Fer Lopez, the other midfielders who Cesar Peixoto wanted further up the pitch, dropping deeper – farther away from the goal.
Toti Gomes did start to find a few long passes towards the end of the game, but nothing truly materialised out of it. All in all, the Rovers managed to make life difficult for Wolves, who could only truly get going in transitions and fast breaks.
They did, however, manage to break Blackburn down while settled in-possession. Adam Armstrong dragged Tom Atcheson all the way to the left, closer to his centre-back partner Sean McLoughlin, creating a huge gap between him and right-back Ryan Alebiosu.
Kristi Montgomery carelessly tried to double on Fer Lopez, who seemed to have turned against Adam Forshaw. Munetsi then identified the space and infiltrated it beautifully. Lopez found the pass and the Zimbabwean put it past Balazs Toth.
Of course, we can’t take defensive strategy into account for Wolves’ second goal. Alebiosu inexplicably put his hand on the ball just over the line of the penalty area and gave away a silly penalty that took away two points from his side.
Clear path to goal
Blackburn also had a clear strategy on how to attack Wolves. All 10 of the Rovers’ shots in the game were assisted and a whopping five of them came from the right-hand side – all of them near the touchline.
Alebiosu’s constant runs will stay in David Moller Wolfe’s memory for days to come. The Nigerian led all players on the pitch and crosses delivered (7) and successful take-ons (2, alongside four others).
But it was Ryoya Morishita and Oladapo Afolayan who provided the assists for Blackburn’s goals. The Japanese midfielder whipped in a delightful cross met by McLoughlin after a series of attempts from a corner kick that made the ball go from left to right then all the way back again.
For the second goal, Afolayan went from the left wing and ran to the right flank, dragging Toti Gomes with him. But that left Yerson Mosquera and Andre confused as to who would mark Gudjohnsen inside the box. The Icelander had nobody around him and completed the cross to put his team 2-1 up.
We can’t take big conclusions from one game, of course. But Peixoto did seem a little rigid tactically, refusing to change the strutcure. Even when adding Jimenez to the mix, he placed striker Adam Armstrong on the left wing to replace Mateus Mane who had just left.
Tommy Doyle’s appearance off the bench eased the load on the centre-backs shoulder when he first came on. He often joined them to form a three-at-the-back while the opposing strikers were still busy trying to deny Andre the ball. But Doyle has good passing himself, so managed to break a few lines.
Adding one more element to the build-up, whether it’s next to Andre to form a 2+2 or the centre-backs for a 3+1 could go a long way in helping Wolves establish themselves in the attacking half more smoothly.
As for Blackburn, you couldn’t have asked for more than they delivered. It’s not going to be an easy season, but having Tony Mowbray at the helm certainly boosts their chances of keeping a light environment and developing a few young players.
It was a silly and avoidable penalty that denied them the opportunity to start the season off with three points away from home and an upset against one of the favourites for automatic promotion.