Wolves 1-1 Norwich: Canaries hold Wolves to drab draw

Wolves had lost six of their last nine home games

Wolves' hopes of European qualification were extinguished as already-relegated Norwich City held them to a frustrating draw at Molineux.

Rayan Ait-Nouri rescued a point after an improved second-half performance by the home side, but it is now just one win from their last seven games.

Because of West Ham's point against Manchester City in London, Wolves can no longer reach the Europa Conference League for next season.

Teemu Pukki gave the Canaries an early lead, but they weren't able to hold on for a final away victory of the season.

There was an end-of-season feel to the game from the start, with both sides lacking form and purpose.

Pukki fired wide after being released by a perfectly-weighted pass from Kieran Dowell, before John Ruddy denied him with a fine save moments later. Toti's well-timed challenge stopped Dowell as he closed in on a tap-in from the rebound.

Wolves dominated possession but were frustrated by Norwich's robust defence for much of the first half.

Their only chance of real note came after half an hour, when Raul Jimenez's cross was headed over by Hwang Hee-chan.

Eight minutes before the break, it was third time lucky for Pukki. He cut in from the right and created a sight of goal before wrong-footing Ruddy for his eleventh goal of the season.

Booed off at half-time, Wolves came out fighting and levelled 10 minutes after the restart. Joao Moutinho's free-kick caused chaos in the area, eventually finding its way for Ait-Nouri to head home.

The mood changed instantly. Chiquinho, a half-time change for the hosts, was causing all sorts of problems and Norwich suddenly looked vulnerable at the back. Pedro Neto nearly put Wolves ahead, only to be thwarted by Angus Gunn.

Bruno Lage's side hunted the winner but were unable to make their dominance count, and he was left frustrated by his side once again conceding first in a match.

"We are frustrated with the result. It has been easy to score goals against us in the last months," Lage told BBC Sport.

"We tried to do our best. We changed the dynamic a bit, scored one and should score more. It is a draw, it is not good for us and me. I wanted a good performance and result for the fans who supported us this season.

"Sometimes the games are balanced and we are suffering first and conceding first, even when the opponent is doing nothing.

"Today, we are controlling the game, we tried to find our spaces to play. We are missing some players; it is easy to find spaces against our defence and it is hard for me to be in this moment."

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Wolves rally but can't find breakthrough

It was a much improved second-half display from Wolves as they looked to end their season on home soil with a flourish.

The introduction of Chiquinho made a real difference and they began to find more space in key areas than before, with Norwich looking much less resolute.

But ultimately, Lage's side perhaps won't be sad to see the back of Molineux for the time being as they failed to turn around a drab home record, having won just three of their previous nine in Wolverhampton.

Canaries hold on but rue early misses

There was a reaction from Norwich here, after a difficult few weeks which confirmed their return to the Championship. The heart was evident again, but perhaps the quality wasn't.

It could have been very different had Pukki made good on those opportunities in the first half, and Dean Smith will no doubt be disappointed with the manner of the goal they conceded.

Smith admitted his frustration with Pukki's finishing but was pleased with the way his side defended overall.

"We had three wonderful chances," he said. "Teemu has been put through a number of times. I thought defensively we restricted them to not many chances at all.

"It was a really good, workmanlike performance but I'm disappointed we haven't got all three because we could have been more than a goal up at half-time.

"[The equaliser] was preventable because it wasn't a free-kick. Unfortunately we have decisions like that go against us week in, week out. We are disappointed by that.

"We wanted to stop the bleeding today; we've been conceding too many goals and too many big chances. I thought we did that today. Second half, we were careless on the ball and didn't keep it as well as we did first half. We thoroughly merited the point."

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