For the second time in as many games, Pyunik was no match for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wolves dominated throughout and a quick-fire three-goal barrage in the second half gave the Premier League club a 4-0 victory (8-0 on aggregate) over its Armenian opponents, Pyunik, on Thursday at Molineux Stadium. New Wolves signing Pedro Neto scored the opening goal on his Wolves debut, with homegrown star Morgan Gibbs-White scoring his first of the season as well.
After creating numerous chances in the first half, Wolves finally found the breakthrough in the 54th minute. Adama Traore found space down the right side of the box, and he cut back towards the center where Neto slid and re-directed a shot home. Gibbs-White then followed in the 58th minute with a similar finish from four yards out, before Ruben Vinagre fired home from the top of the box in the 64th minute. Diogo Jota put the icing on the cake in the 87th minute to give Wolves a massive European win at home.
There were 29,391 of you at Molineux this evening. Thank you for your fantastic support!
— Wolves (@Wolves) August 15, 2019
And safe travels to the 22 @FC_Pyunik supporters who made the trip to Wolverhampton tonight.
👏🐺 pic.twitter.com/PrcQvMp6T8
With the win, Wolverhampton Wanderers advance to the Europa League Play-Off Round where it will face Torino, one round before the group stage. Matches will be played on the next two Thursdays, August 22 and August 29.
Rangers advance past Midtjylland
While Celtic endured a disappointing defeat on Tuesday night, its rivals Rangers took care of business at home to advance to the final round of qualifying in the Europa League.
Rangers defeated Danish side FC Midtjylland, 3-1, at Ibrox, to win handily, 7-3 on aggregate. Rangers’ Colombian striker Alfredo Morelos scored a pair, as did new signing Sheyi Ojo. Midtjylland grabbed a second-half goal from Evander, but the club needed four more goals just to advance, and it ran out of time.
Rangers advance to face Legia Warsaw in the next round. American right back Matt Polster didn’t make the 18 for the Scottish club.
Here’s a roundup of the rest of the Europa League action from Thursday:
HJK 2 - 2 Riga
Dinamo Tbilisi 1 - 1 Feyenoord
Spartak Moskva 2 - 1 Thun
Sūduva 2 - 1 Maccabi Tel Aviv
BATE 0 - 0 Sarajevo
AIK 1 - 1 Sheriff
Shakhtyor 1 - 1 Torino
Apollon 3 - 1 Austria Wien
Mladá Boleslav 0 - 1 FCSB
Yeni Malatyaspor 1 - 0 Partizan
Zrinjski 1 - 0 Malmö FF
Zorya 1 - 0 CSKA Sofia
Bnei Yehuda 2 - 1 Neftçi
The New Saints 0 - 4 Ludogorets
Hapoel Be’er Sheva 3 - 1 Norrköping
Trabzonspor 2 - 1 Sparta Praha
Valletta 0 - 4 Astana
Viktoria Plzeň 2 - 1 Antwerp AET
AEK Athens 1 - 1 Universitatea
PSV 0 - 0 Haugesund
Aris 3 - 1 Molde AET
Strasbourg 1 - 0 Lokomotiv Plovdiv
AZ 4 - 0 Mariupol’
Gent 3 - 0 AEK Larnaca
Eintracht Frankfurt 1 - 0 Vaduz
Sporting Braga 3 - 1 Brøndby
Rangers 3 - 1 Midtjylland
Aberdeen 0 - 2 Rijeka
Espanyol 3 - 0 Luzern