Nzonzi strikes as Stoke thrash Oxford

Steven Nzonzi scored his first Stoke City goal for over 10 years to help them to victory at Oxford United

Lewis Baker scored twice and Steven Nzonzi netted his first goal in English football for over a decade as Stoke City recorded their first-ever win at Oxford United.

The Potters, who have won four of their last five in the Championship, dominated from the start and next face leaders Coventry City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday after moving into second place.

Oxford's season had perked up with seven points from their previous four games after a sluggish start to the campaign, but they saw Greg Leigh and Przemyslaw Placheta miss glorious chances in the first half.

Stoke have now racked up three consecutive wins and scored eight in their last two games, with Baker bagging two counter-attacking goals either side of a Nzonzi volleyed finish, his first for the club since he scored in the famous 6-1 Premier League win over Liverpool in May 2015.

This was only Stoke's ninth visit to Oxford for a league fixture, but they had lost six and drawn two before heading to the Kassam Stadium on a rain-swept night.

Oxford should have been ahead inside the first minute as Brian de Keersmaecker recycled the ball from a cleared corner and plonked his cross onto the head of the unmarked Greg Leigh at the far post, the defender mistiming his effort badly to send it past the post with the goal wide open.

Stoke struck quickly on 10 minutes as Sorba Thomas led a counter-attack and sent Million Manhoef running at the defence with options left and right.

He chose left, to Divin Mubama, and when his shot was parried by goalkeeper Jamie Cumming, Baker was on hand to tap in a simple goal.

Baker was the provider as Nzonzi, who won the Europa League with Sevilla and the World Cup with France after leaving the Potters in 2015, only to return from Iranian football in the summer, had his moment.

The midfielder whipped a corner kick to the near post and Nzonzi steered a classy sidefooted finish into the net to double the lead.

Placheta squandered a great opportunity to get the home side back in the contest before half-time, skewing his shot wide when a cross from the right evaded two defenders and fell kindly for him.

Baker wrapped up the points just three minutes after the break, again getting on the end of things after another swift counter.

This time it was right-back Junior Tchamadeu who stretched the Us' defencebefore cutting the ball back for Baker and when his right-footed shot was blocked, it bounced back to his left foot for a simple sidefoot finish.

With the points in the bag, Stoke - who are second - eased down with one eye on the visit of Frank Lampard's table-toppers at the weekend.

'Three outstanding goals' - reaction

Oxford manager Gary Rowett told BBC Radio Oxford:

"That's probably as poor a performance we have had, overall, since I've been here, which is disappointing on the back of finishing the way we did against Millwall.

"Early on we should have been a goal to the good. Greg [Leigh] gets a brilliant chance and maybe just mistimes his jump from a yard out when it hits him in the face and goes a yard wide.

"Their first was a poor goal to concede, the second was a set-piece where we let Nzonzi run off us for a good finish and the third came just at the start of the second half when we had changed things tactically in the hope of giving ourselves a chance.

"It summed up the evening really, in that we can't get going, and we petered out as well, not showing the relevant fight late in the game."

Stoke manager Mark Robins told BBC Radio Stoke:

"We were really good. Coming to a place like this, you want to try to kill what they do, and you hear everybody talking about how difficult they are to play against.

"To come here on an evening like this you have to be really tuned in, and really focused, and the players were that from start to finish. There was no little quality, there was loads and loads of determination and effort.

"They were three outstanding goals. The third was incredible because we moved the ball really well, ran forward with speed, the second was a perfect set-play with great delivery and Steven [Nzonzi] got great contact to find the net.

"It was a clean sheet too, so that's five goals and three goals [scored] and one conceded in two games against really difficult opponents."