Norwich City vs Ipswich Town. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance27,040.
Former Norwich boss Paul Lambert sent off on return to Carrow Road as Norwich cruise to victory.
Sunday 10 February 2019 14:43, UK
Teemu Pukki scored twice to send Norwich back to the top of the Sky Bet Championship with a 3-0 victory over Ipswich in a feisty East Anglian derby.
Onel Hernandez gave the Canaries the lead after just two minutes and things went from bad to worse for bottom-club Ipswich as manager Paul Lambert - on his return to Carrow Road - was sent off just before half-time.
Pukki then pounced twice after the break to seal the win for Norwich, who moved two points clear of Leeds in second and five ahead of Sheffield United in third.
Ipswich, who haven't beaten their rivals in 10 years, stay bottom of the table, nine adrift of safety.
Norwich got off to a flying start. Less than two minutes were on the clock when Max Aarons flew down the right and played in Hernandez. His initial effort was blocked but Mario Vrancic got his head on the ball to steer it back to Hernandez, who had plenty of time and space to drive the ball into the back of the net.
What followed then was a relatively quiet first half, at least until stoppage time when a poor challenge from Jon Nolan on Aarons led to a mass scuffle on the sidelines, drawing in both benches and seeing Lambert and a member of Norwich's coaching staff, Head of Performance Chris Domogalla, dismissed.
Norwich were not creating as much as usual but they found a way through again after 65 minutes as Emi Buendia sprung Pukki in, who finished low across Bartosz Bialkowski from the edge of the area.
And after 81 minutes Pukki sealed the victory. Again it was Buendia who provided the assists as the striker raced into the box to poke the ball home.
Pukki will grab all the headlines for his double and Norwich were clinical in attack, but the way Zimmermann steered his young defensive team-mates through a fiery encounter was enough for co-commentator Don Goodman to hand him the award.
Daniel Farke: "Ipswich had to try and break our rhythm and try and annoy us and take our concentration away, but I think the most important thing is that happens on the pitch.
"Like I said I'm full of respect for Paul's great career on the pitch and he's still a hero in Germany. There are some great lads at Ipswich, on the pitch and on the sidelines, but some of the lads used a few words that I wouldn't want any children to hear.
"My feeling is you can lose a game but show a bit of class. I think 95 per cent of Ipswich's staff did this, but not all of them."
Paul Lambert: "I saw the tackle, which was a nothing challenge, then I saw one of their two lads come in and am I supposed to stand back and watch my own lads get bullied? I'm not going to do that.
"To be fair to the lads they went toe to toe, which is part of the game, and then something happened which I wasn't happy with, so that's why I reacted. There were one or two things there, but it's dealt with."
Both sides return to Sky Bet Championship action on Wednesday night. Ipswich host Derby and Norwich head to Preston. Both games will be live on the Sky Sports red button and mobile app.
