Asia Trophy Final Match Preview [LIVE]

On Saturday 20th Wolves take on Man City in the final of the Asia Trophy. The game will be played in Shanghai with a kick off time of 12.30 (UK time).

After their impressive 4 – 0 win over Newcastle Wolves will go into this game full of confidence. Despite the absence of star striker Raul Jimenez, fellow strike partner Diogo Jota carried on from where he left off last season with 2 well taken goals and an assist for Morgan Gibbs White. The 4th goal was a comedy own goal which merely highlighted the huge gulf between the two sides.

Manchester City also swept aside opponents West Ham to record a 4-1 victory although in all honesty, the scoreline flattered City somewhat.
West Ham took the lead via a Mark Nobel penalty, the scores being levelled shortly after by a world class David Silva strike. West Ham were denied a second penalty which from the TV replays was clearly stone wall. Just 3 minutes after Silva’s goal City themselves were awarded a penalty of their own which West Ham were entitled to feel aggrieved about – say no more!
However, there was no arguing about 2 classy second half strikes from Raheem Sterling which put the game beyond the reach of West Ham who should, never the less be pleased with their performance.

Interestingly there was a contrast between the way the two managers set up their sides. For his game Nuno Espirito Santo chose to start with his strongest side with only Jimenez and Matt Doherty missing from his preferred line up for last season. Once they had established a healthy lead, Nuno elected to sub 8 of his players with only the 3 centre backs playing the full 90 minutes. The fact that the second half played out with 7 Wolves players under the age of 21 with no loss of momentum is all credit to Nuno and his coaching staff.

For City’s game, Pepe started with a youthful side and brought out the big guns later with Stones, Bernardo Silva, Walker, Sané, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Zinchenko and Sterling all coming on as subs.

If Wolves appeared to go about their match in exactly the same way as they finished last season, it has to be said that City did just the same. With their air of invincibility City will go into this game as clear favourites but for sure Wolves will be no pushover.

Live @ http://www.ja606.co.uk/articles/viewLiveArticle/410271
One match ban enabled

The game will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event