Liam Keen comment: First look at Wolves' new man as he gives positive signs in training game

It may have ended in a 2-1 defeat over two 35-minute halves during their training camp in Portugal, but the result at this stage of pre-season is largely irrelevant.

The Express & Star was given exclusive access to the match and what did we learn from it?

Attacking partnership

Fer Lopez was signed for £19.5million, but with his relatively brief experience in professional football and at just 21-years-old, Wolves are not putting pressure on him to set the Premier League alight straight away.

But the Spaniard still has impressive technique and a good physical condition - and on his first outing in a Wolves shirt he showed plenty of promise.

His first impactful moment was a delightful and intelligent flick around the corner for team-mate and close friend Jorgen Strand Larsen.

The new signing then flashed a shot wide after good work on the opposite flank from youngster Leo Lopes.

Moments later, Lopez showed the exact commitment and tenacity that Wolves fans would ask for when he chased down a defender, won the ball and fed Larsen, who hit the crossbar from a tight angle.

The final moment where the pair combined saw Lopez clip an intelligent free-kick towards the striker, who fired into the side netting.

There is a lot more work to do, but Lopez and Larsen showed a great understanding and there is hopefully more to come.

Goalscoring return

Sasa Kalajdzic has shown a real willingness in training to get stuck back into work and that paid off against Santa Clara.

It must be difficult, both mentally and physically, to recover from another serious knee injury, but Kalajdzic is showing few signs of it affecting him.

He did tire during the first half and needed some coaching from Pereira on the sidelines with holding the ball up, but he was prepared to run and produced one bit of quality when he won the ball back, shimmied beyond a defender and finished low to put Wolves 1-0 up.

He also had other chance when he tried to latch onto a parry from a Goncalo Guedes shot and also when an excellent Ki-Jana Hoever cross almost found him.

Kalajdzic may leave on loan this summer but regardless of what his future may hold, he has made a good start to his recovery.

Tough conditions

When checking on a well-known weather app, the local temperature said 26 degrees, but it felt a lot hotter than that!

No clouds meant no cover and the sun was beating down heavily on the Wolves and Santa Clara players.

As a result, both teams had water breaks halfway through both halves to tackle the hot and humid conditions.

This environment will only help the players prepare properly for the season, however, as Pereira puts them through their paces.

Spare a thought, too, for youngster Alfie Pond. He was the only player to play both halves of football as Wolves utilised young players to make up the teams.

The 21-year-old centre-back played on the right of the back three in the first half and then started the second half on the left, before switching with Matt Doherty and back over to the right during the fixture.

Credit where it is due, he carried himself well in very tough conditions and certainly held his own.

Young talents

Pond was not the only young player to get a run out, however, as Mateus Mane and Lopes both started at either wing-back position in the second half.

Lopes, as mentioned with the Lopez chance previously, put in some dangerous deliveries from the left and was willing and able to make runs in behind and be aggressive.

Mane, who recently signed his first professional contract at the age of 17 and is tipped to have a first team impact in the years to come, started on the right.

His highlights also came when he was going forward and he showed good movement and an eye for a pass.

One moment in particular saw him produce a superb reverse pass for Marshall Munetsi, who had made a late midfield run.

Both Lopes and Mane are used to playing further forward and wing-back would have been slightly unusual to them, but they did themselves proud in these early stages of pre-season.