FARKE’S FURY AS SEAGULLS DUMP ON CANARIES
period before yesterday – Farke continues to surprise.
Particularly with strange team selections. Yesterday, in another must-win clash, he dropped his top scorers Teemu Pukki and Todd Cantwell.
Weird. Unless, like the rest of the country, he had already accepted the Canaries have no chance of survival and, therefore, is already thinking ahead to next term in tier two.
No such worries for Brighton, who since Project
Restart have gradually pulled away from serious trouble – with seven points from a possible 12. And while they arrived in Norfolk without an away win since December, they always looked likely to end that travel sickness.
Moments before the first-half drinks break, the visitors felt they should have had a penalty after Norwich full-back Max Aarons tangled with Trossard.
But, despite a small tug on the arm, the Seagulls midfielder went down theatrically and his appeals were correctly ignored.
Within a minute of the resumption, though, Belgium star Trossard made amends as he broke the deadlock.
Aussie playmaker Aaron Mooy was the creator with a fine run and cross into the area where Trossard had timed his run perfectly.
His finish was equally good as he flicked it first-time past a stranded Tim Krul in the Norwich goal.
The hosts, who did next to nothing all half, finally threatened in the 44th-minute, but Onel Hernandez’s shot deflected harmlessly into Mat Ryan’s hands.
Though not exactly
NORWICH BRIGHTON 1 .............. Shots on Target ........... 2 4 ............. Shots off Target ........... 3 7 ............... BlockedShots ............ 3 0 ..................... Corners ................... 2 11 ........................ Fouls .................... 13 4 ..................... Offsides .................. 0 2 ................. Yellow Cards .............. 2 0 ................... Red Cards ................ 0 85.5 .... Passing Success %.. 82.4 45 ................. Duels Won ............... 41 52.3 ........ Duel Success % ...... 47.7 14 ..................... Tackles ................... 11 64.3 ........ Tackles Won % ...... 45.5 57.8 .......... Possession % ....... 42.2 50.4 ...... Territorial Adv % .... 49.6 586 ............ Total Passes .......... 421 17 ............... Total Crosses ............ 14 131 ................. Lost Balls .............. 116 57 ................ Recoveries .............. 55 55 ............ 1st Half Poss % .......... 45 60.7 ....... 2nd Half Poss % ..... 39.3 one-way traffic, the south coast side continued to be the more dangerous after half-time.
They very nearly put the result beyond doubt in the 50th minute when Mooy’s free-kick was headed inches past the post by Dan Burn.
Farke eventually relented in the 67th minute and brought on both Pukki and Cantwell in a last throw of the dice.
That, unfortunately, made no difference whatsoever to the direction of traffic – until the closing seconds when another of the Norwich subs, Adam Idah, struck the inside of the post.