BRAZILIANS DOUBLE UP TO STOP BLUEBIRDS’ REVIVAL
CARDIFF City came hurtling back down to earth with a 2-0 defeat by Norwich City at Carrow Road. The Bluebirds were riding the crest of a wave following two wins in as many games, but two goals in four minutes in the first half ended their mini winning run.
Gabriel Sara got the first for the Canaries, while Marquinhos netted the hosts’ second to put the tie to bed. In truth, they had chances to double that scoreline, which they didn’t take.
It was always going to be a tough ask, but, given the way Cardiff started the game, they might have hoped for more.
Sabri Lamouchi opted for a couple of changes before the match, with Connor Wickham afforded his first start and Joe Ralls brought in to bolster the midfield.
It was a new-look formation, with
Ralls and Jaden Philogene playing in behind Wickham, tasked with pressing the Canaries defenders.
And it worked early on when Norwich gifted the ball to Callum O’Dowda, who was tackled in the box before the ball fell into the path of Wickham, whose shot from 10 yards out was blocked.
There was no denying that the Bluebirds were the team in the ascendancy during the early exchanges, with Jaden Philogene firing a couple of shots at goal – only to watch them sail over the bar.
More positive pressing work yielded another breakaway chance, this time down the other flank when Mahlon Romeo intercepted an errant Max Aarons pass. He had Wickham, completely unmarked, inside him in the box, but his side-footed effort was saved comfortably by Angus Gunn. The wise option was to play in Wickham.
The crux of it all was that, despite 20 minutes of dominance, the scores remained level. It was a matter of
time before the hosts made inroads and Cardiff’s lack of cutting edge would come back to bite them.
Sara had fired off one or two warning shots prior to his goal, so his opener was certainly coming.
He was finding joy 20 yards from goal and the visitors afforded him one too many opportunities before the Canaries man found his radar and buried a low effort into the bottom corner. At Ryan Allsop’s near post, perhaps the keeper will want that one back.
And Cardiff were shell-shocked. Just four minutes later, Onel Hernandez skipped past Mahlon Romeo down Norwich’s left and fed in a dangerous cross. It looked to have averted everyone, but Marquinhos burst on to it and cracked it past Allsop first time.
Lamouchi, clearly unhappy with how Cardiff finished that first half, rang the changes at half time, with Sory Kaba, Kion Etete and Andy Rinomhota all introduced.
But Norwich were still in the ascendancy. A woeful pass from Cedric Kipre gifted Norwich an opening through Adam Idah. The striker was slotted in and only had the keeper to beat. Allsop was indecisive and Idah rounded him before inexplicably sending his shot over the bar. A big let-off for the visitors.
The pressure, though, was unrelenting. The visitors survived another scare when Sara’s pinpoint diagonal ball into the box was crisply struck by Hernandez, whose shot shaved the post on its way out. Cardiff were on the ropes.
And the few chances the visitors did get, they kept squandering. Ryan Wintle, for example, was gifted the ball 20 yards from Norwich’s goal, but he snatched at his chance and pulled it wide of the mark under zero pressure. They have to start taking those chances.
Teemu Pukki was called upon by David Wagner and the Finn would have been disappointed by the chance he missed. Although, to his credit, it was a seriously impressive save from Allsop which denied him.
Dimitris Giannoulis burst down the Canaries’ left-hand side before squared to Pukki, who looked to sidefoot home from just yards out. But an instinctive, outstretched left boot from Allsop kept the striker at bay.
The only saving grace for Cardiff was that all the other teams around them lost, too, with only Rotherham United, who take on Swansea City on Monday night, left to play.
We are in the period of the season when other teams’ results matter just as much as Cardiff’s.