Coventry City 0-2 Norwich City: Championship leaders move four points clear
- Published
Emi Buendia has now scored nine and assisted eight goals in the Championship this season
Championship leaders Norwich City eased to a comfortable victory at Coventry City to extend their lead at the top of the table to four points.
Teemu Pukki put the visitors in front with a composed finish from Emi Buendia's perfectly weighted through-ball and the Finn returned the favour for Buendia to make it 2-0 just before the break.
Callum O'Hare got in behind for the hosts after the break but Canaries goalkeeper Tim Krul raced off his line to deny him.
Victory saw Daniel Farke's men put daylight between themselves and second-placed Brentford, who suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat at QPR.
Norwich had ended a three-match winless run with a thumping 4-1 win over Stoke on Saturday and they picked up where they left off with a brilliant first-half showing at St Andrews, where they probably should have scored more than twice.
It was a familiar duo who did the damage for the visitors after Pukki opened the scoring with a crisp finish across Ben Wilson in the home goal from a defence-splitting pass from Buendia.
The Argentine attacker, who has assisted five of Pukki's 14 goals this season, was then the beneficiary of some great work from the Finnish striker to put the game beyond the hosts with the last kick of the first half.
Pukki pinched the ball off Sky Blues defender Kyle McFadzean 40 yards from goal, drove forwards and then unselfishly squared for Buendia to tap in.
Norwich host struggling Rotherham on Saturday while Coventry, who are three points above the relegation zone, have a home game against out-of-sorts Brentford.
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR:
"The second half was good, the first half was awful. In certain areas we looked like we were lacking confidence and we were making the wrong decisions and consequently we ended up in a really poor position. If you give the ball away to them then they can hurt you and that's what happened.
"If you're going to concede a goal, stay in the game, and in the second half you can have a really good go, but to concede the second goal gave the game away. We're giving too many rubbish goals away.
"The second half was much better and we have to get after teams whoever they are. Teams aren't having to work hard to score goals against us. We have to be more ruthless and clinical."
Norwich City head coach Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Norfolk:
"I'm pretty proud tonight. It was the perfect away performance against a side who is fighting relegation and desperately needs the points, especially in home games.
"We showed good game management and got back to the dressing rooms with a clean sheet. We know we have good players and are capable of dominating games and being nice on the eye, but the most important thing is to be effective and to win the games and we got the balance right today.
"I always want to score more goals but I also wanted the clean sheet today so I was pleased with the win. We are three points closer to what we want to achieve at the end of the season."