PREMIER LEAGUE

Euro-chasing Burnley cruise past nine-man Canaries

NORWICH CITY BURNLEY 0 2

NORWICH’S season at Carrow Road came to a calamitous end as they finished the match with nine men in a 2-0 defeat to Burnley.

The Canaries have won just five matches all season, four of which came at home, but Daniel Farke’s men struggled against a solid Burnley side who kept their slim chances of Europa League qualification alive.

Emiliano Buendia was dismissed by referee Kevin Friend with the scores level, and Josip Drmic soon followed the Argentinian after a mistimed diving tackle on Erik Pieters. From then, Norwich’s task of securing their first Premier League point since February 28 was made even harder, when Chris Wood’s mistimed overhead kick managed to beat Tim Krul.

Ben Godfrey then turned the ball into his own net with less than 10 minutes remaining under no pressure from the Burnley attackers to sum up Norwich’s performance.

Dwight Mcneil had the first good chance of the match with his longrange effort, but the ball sailed over the bar without troubling Tim Krul.

The Canaries came closest in the first 20 minutes however, when Nick Pope saved Godfrey’s on-target close-range header and James Tarkowski just managed to deflect Alex Tettey’s follow-up strike.

After a heated collision between Buendia and Ashley Westwood, the Norwich player was shown a red card for violent contact. Although the coming-together appeared innocuous, the referee consulted the monitor following a lengthy VAR review before sending the 23-year-old off for using an elbow.

Krul was called into action just before the half-time break, making a brilliant flying save after Mcneil’s free-kick took a heavy deflection off Onel Hernandez towards the Norwich goal. The Dutch goalkeeper had to shift his balance and change direction to make the save.

Norwich’s day took a further turn for the worse when Drmic was shown a straight red card for a lunging tackle on Pieters. After a quick VAR check, the Canaries were left to with nine men.

Moments later, Burnley capitalised when the home side were unable to clear the ball, Johann Gudmundsson crossed and Wood managed to beat Krul.

Wood then had a chance to double his side’s lead when Westwood played a pass right into his path, but the unmarked number nine’s first-time volley was scuffed wide of the goal.

With the game drawing to its conclusion, Godfrey turned a Pieters cross past Krul and into his own net under no pressure from any Burnley players.