Blackburn Rovers 1-2 Norwich City: Teemu Pukki double keeps Canaries top of Championship
- Published
Teemu Pukki turned and finished neatly from Alex Tettey's pass for Norwich's first goal
Teemu Pukki scored twice as Norwich maintained their impressive recent form and remained top of the Championship with victory at Blackburn.
The Finland international took his goal tally for the Canaries to 50 in the process with one in each half, either side of Harvey Elliott's equaliser for Blackburn.
His first was a neat turn and shot from Alex Tettey's pass to find the bottom left corner and his second saw him cleverly divert Emi Buendia's shot from outside the penalty area past a hapless Thomas Kaminski.
Earlier Rovers had pushed Norwich hard as Sam Gallagher crashed a thumping shot off the crossbar early in the second half before Liverpool loanee Elliott netted a superb goal from a solo run and finish off the right wing.
Norwich sit three points clear at the top, ahead of second-placed Bournemouth after a third successive victory.
They will travel to fifth-placed Reading on Wednesday having lost just once in their past 14 matches.
Pukki, who was named Championship player of the season in their promotion-winning season of 2018-19, has now scored nine times this campaign in 16 appearances.
At first, he appeared a touch fortunate to net the winner in this one, but replays showed he had the awareness to open up his feet to steer Buendia's drive into the far corner.
Blackburn are now without a win in their previous three games and were beaten at home for the first time in four fixtures at Ewood Park.
Tony Mowbray's side drop to 12th prior to a meeting with Rotherham on Wednesday.
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I thought the team worked really hard, we created enough chances and we played against a good side of course, who created plenty of chances themselves.
"But, on the balance, I think we feel a little hard done by we didn't get anything out of it. Particularly in the second half, we looked the dominant side and after we scored, we looked like we could go on and win.
"Then out of noting they got themselves back ahead and it's frustrating more than anything for that to happen.
"Norwich are top of the table and we didn't look too far away. If anything we looked the better team."
Norwich City manager Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Norfolk:
"Blackburn we were expecting to be one of our toughest away games this season as especially offensively, they're an unbelievable threat.
"I'm pretty sure not many sides will come away from here with points, let alone three this season.
"It's a great win for us, a massive one, I'm pretty delighted and just full of massive compliments for the lads.
"It's a joy to be able to work with these lads every single day as they're not happy to settle for just a point and they worked hard to get back in the lead again."
On Teemu Pukki's 50 goals in 100 Norwich appearances: "That was one of his best performances today.
"Not just because of the two goals, but his work-rate, how many balls he won through his pressing, how many smart moves he made to open up space for his team-mates.
"He was always a threat coming forward.
"Of course, I don't have to speak about his goalscoring ability. It was Teemu Pukki at his best today and we can all be proud and delighted we have the best striker in the league in a yellow shirt."