Buendia beauty sends Norwich 10 points clear
MIDWAY through the first half, Emi Buendia picked up possession on the right. From a standing start, 30 yards out, the Argentine drifted beyond three statues posing as Brentford defenders before sliding a shot beyond David raya.
Just like that, in a five- second flash of green and yellow, this promotion tussle drifted even further east.
Now, after first beat second, the Norwich rear-view mirror appears rather less cluttered.
Brentford were top of the Championship less than a month ago. Now Daniel Farke’s Norwich have a 10-point lead.
‘Three points closer to what we want to achieve,’ the manager said. ‘ Seventy-three points after this number of games is fantastic but we have to keep going.’
Buendia, 24, was a rare bright spark in Norwich’s previous — and miserable — Premier league campaign. Now he is flicking this yo-yo club upwards once more.
Brentford, meanwhile, will have to do it the hard way — this was a huge chance missed.
‘Our performance would have been good enough to win a lot of Championship games, but if you want to beat No1, you have to play better,’ said Bees boss Thomas Frank. ‘They will 100 per cent get promoted, I can’t see them blowing this.’
No mind games, Frank insisted. No need after Buendia’s brilliance settled another tight game.
he shone throughout — after only 90 seconds, he put Teemu Pukki in behind, only for the striker to fluff the chance.
Nevertheless, the visitors will wonder how they didn’t open the scoring. Twice Sergi Canos came close inside 10 minutes. his first effort from distance was saved by Tim krul. Then, when the keeper parried Bryan Mbeumo’s cross to his feet — six yards out — Canos lost his balance.
For a while Brentford’s press frustrated Norwich, who struggled to piece much together until Buendia did it all himself.
he now has 10 goals for the season and right on half-time he deserved assist No11.
Again his delightful through-ball set Pukki clear. Again, the forward failed to convert.
raya made a fine save this time and more frustration followed after the break, when Pukki’s low effort was kept out, too.
Brentford — the division’s top scorers — took until stoppage time to mount a significant bombardment on the home goal.
In a breathless finale, Ivan Toney and henrik Dalsgaard sent efforts wide before winger Mbeumo fell in the box under a challenge from Grant hanley.
Nothing stuck, and so Norwich have six wins on the bounce. If each represents one small step toward the promised land, this felt like a giant leap.