Marco Silva has warned fans and his players that the clash with Wolves will be a challenging game, despite them already being relegated. Fulham head to Molineux in their final away match of the season.
Marco Silva has warned his players that the match with Wolves will be ‘a difficult game’ despite them being 20th in the Premier League.
It has been a season that has never really got off the ground for Wolves and their relegation to the second flight has, for a long time, been considered almost guaranteed.
It was confirmed officially in April and they remain three points behind fellow relegated side Burnley.
The match on Sunday will be the final one at Molineux in the Premier League until at least August 2027 and Silva has warned his players that the circumstances dictate that this could be a challenging affair.
He said: “I know that they are relegated, but if I go back and look for, for example, their last six home games, I saw them winning against Liverpool, I saw them winning against Villa, I saw them get a great result [2-2] against the team that is on top of the table [Arsenal] in the Premier League, that is fighting to be champions.
“And if you think that even if they are or not relegated, it’s going to be easy or not, when you have these type of games, players want to show their capacities – individual point of view, them as a football club, and of course they want to win the game as well.
“It’s that feeling [for Wolves] of last game of the season at home with your fans, you know what that represents as well.
“They want to finish in a different way. Everything is there, and that showed to me that it’s going to be a difficult game.”
Fulham beat Wolves 3-0 at Craven Cottage earlier in the season, with goals from Ryan Sessegnon and Harry Wilson, as well as an own goal from Yerson Mosquera following Emmanuel Agbadou’s red card.
Now they have the opportunity to do the double over Wolves and while Silva would of course like to do that, he is thinking more about the points on offer, with European football still a possibility with two matches to go.
“I didn't know about the double over Wolves – let's go for it,” he added.
“But the first thing you have, I'm not talking about respecting themselves, more to respect ourselves, what we have been doing, and the points that are there for us to fight for.”
The match will take place at Molineux on Sunday, after the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City on Saturday.