Norwich City vs Bristol City. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow Road.
Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Norwich City and Bristol City at Carrow Road as Jordan Hugill scored twice to steer the league-leading Canaries to a comfortable victory
Wednesday 20 January 2021 21:14, UK
Norwich moved seven points clear at the top of the Sky Bet Championship after they outclassed Bristol City to record a routine 2-0 win at Carrow Road.
Goals in either half from striker Jordan Hugill settled a one-sided encounter, with the visitors failing to register a single effort on target all evening.
Daniel Farke's side dominated from start to finish, and a two-goal victory was the very least they deserved as they registered a third straight league win to further strengthen their position at the summit.
Norwich bossed the opening period and would have had the game wrapped up at half-time had they converted more of the numerous chances they created.
As early as the second minute, Todd Cantwell had a good sight of goal after Hugill had cut the ball back into his path but his low shot was straight at goalkeeper Daniel Bentley.
Emi Buendia was the next home player to go close, getting his shot from a low Max Aarons cross on target, only to see Tomas Kalas make a superb block to keep his goal-bound effort out.
The home pressure was relentless and it needed a superb fingertip save from Bentley to keep out a piledriver from Kenny McLean just before the half-hour mark, with the 'keeper again doing well to thwart Hugill from close range.
A goal just had to come and it finally arrived in the 36th minute after Bristol City had failed to clear their lines following a prolonged period of pressure.
Aarons was afforded plenty of time to slip the ball back to Cantwell behind him on the right and the young midfielder's inviting cross was headed home by Hugill, deputising for the injured Teemu Pukki, at the back post.
Having hardly laid a glove on the leaders in the first half, the Robins started the second period brightly, with plenty of possession, but could find no way past a resolute home defence.
At the other end, a quite brilliant reaction save from Bentley to keep out a diving header from Hugill was rendered irrelevant by an offside flag.
Buendia was only inches off target with a 25-yard screamer and Aarons' deflected shot from a tight angle brought another good save out of the visiting 'keeper as an entertaining game entered its final quarter.
The Canaries just needed a second goal to wrap up another three points and it arrived in the 75th minute.
As a cross from the left flashed across the six-yard box a Bristol defender went down, but referee James Linington allowed play to carry on and when Aarons put the ball back into the danger area Kalas' attempted block rebounded off Hugill from point-blank range and flew into the back of the net.
Norwich's Daniel Farke: "It is always difficult to compare games but I would say this was our best performance of the season so far. The lads were fantastic and I can't praise them enough. We dominated the game from start to finish, had nine shots on goal while denying them a single effort on our goal, had two thirds of the possession and the only complaint I could make was that we didn't take more of the many chances we created.
"We are in a great position but we are not over the moon or anything like that because there are still a lot of games to play and I expect teams like Brentford and Swansea to win their games in hand. But I am very pleased with what I saw this evening."
Bristol City's Dean Holden: "We were beaten by a top team tonight, undoubtedly the best team in the league. We knew all about their qualities, how well they keep the ball and how expansive they are but were hoping to take advantage when we got the ball from them. But we never really did that and didn't create nearly enough. We actually started the game quite brightly and also had quite a lot of the ball in the opening stages of the second half, but overall it was a tough evening for us.
"We didn't pass it nearly as well as we did at Preston in our last game and we need to put this behind us and try and ensure we get back to those standards against Millwall in our next game."
