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Joao Moutinho is targeting a second Europa League winners medal as Wolves prepare for their first knockout tie in nearly 50 years.

Moutinho lifted the trophy in 2011 with Porto and the experienced midfielder insists Wolves are determined to make a huge statement in this years competition.

Wolves progressed from the group stages as runners-up from Group K and face Spanish strugglers Espanyol in the first leg at Molineux on Thursday night.

Espanyol are bottom of La Liga and while Moutinho has warned Wolves to expect a difficult evening, he is on a mission to add some more silverware to his CV.

Moutinho, 33, has also won three league titles with Porto, a league title with Monaco and was a member of the Portugal squad which triumphed at Euro 2016.

Ive won it [Europa League] once before and we are in every competition to try and win every game, he said.

The direction of the club at Wolves is going up and up. There is a big difference between what the other clubs pay and its difficult for our budget to do it - but we have a young team, a very good group, and we want to try and catch the big teams.

We are now in the knockout stages and the feeling is good.

Espanyol is a good team, even though their position in the league is not a true reflection with the players they have. It will be a tough game and we have to do it 100 per centto pass.

Wolves have not competed in the knockout rounds of major European competition since the 1971/72 season and head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has insisted that Espanyol cannot be underestimated.

Nuno is also hoping that Wolves do not experience any further issues with the Video Assistant Referee, with the system to be introduced by Uefa for the knockout stages.

Wolves have suffered more than most at the hands of VAR this season, most recently with a controversially disallowed goal against Leicester last Friday night.

Nuno said: Losing the emotion part of the game is the big risk. Football is about goals and that cannot go away from the game.

It is part of us, it is here to stay and the only thing I hope [for] is improvement, to be more clear to everybody and especially the players.

Sometimes they are on the pitch and they dont understand. With the delays the fans are not happy and something has to be done.

Nuno is expected to field a strong starting XI against Espanyol, with wing-back Ruben Vinagre the only absentee with a hamstring injury.

This is a tough game and the table doesnt mean anything, he said. We have done well [so far], we started early in the competition and the group phase was tough but since day one we have embraced the challenge.

We are proud of what we have done and now know we want to compete well. We want to keep building and improving.

See the article here:
Joao Moutinho says Wolves determined to make a big statement ahead of first European knockout game in almost 50 years - Telegraph.co.uk