Norwich 2-0 Burnley: Canaries secure impressive win to keep Premier League survival hopes alive

Match report and free highlights as Pierre Lees-Melou and Teemu Pukki get on scoresheet to maintain slim survival hopes and sink Burnley deeper into relegation fight

Sunday 10 April 2022 19:03, UK

Norwich kept slim hopes of Premier League survival alive with a 2-0 win over relegation rivals Burnley at Carrow Road on Sunday.

Norwich kicked off proceedings with a spring in their step, with Teemu Pukki, Milot Rashica and Pierre Lees-Melou combining effectively.

The early intensity paid dividends with just nine minutes on the clock when Lees-Melou shot through six Burnley players, aided by two deflections and a poor clearance by James Tarkowski, to fire the hosts ahead.

Sean Dyche appeared visibly frustrated on the sidelines as his side battled to close spaces in the centre of the park and the momentum began to swing midway through the half, with Tim Krul palming away a Maxwel Cornet effort from a breakaway attack.

But Dean Smith's side maintained control after the break, with Mathias Normann finding Pukki unmarked in the box in the 86th minute, with time to compose himself and find the bottom-left corner.

How the six-pointer played out

Norwich forward Rashica set the tone with a decent effort from a counter attack just four minutes into the game.

The hosts continued to find a surprising amount of space in the centre of the park and capitalised when a spell of pressure resulted in a corner and Lees-Melou broke the deadlock with a powerful drive through a crowd of defenders.

Lees-Melou continued to pull the strings and teed up Pukki minutes later down the right flank, with the Finland international firing across goal and forcing Nick Pope into a good save down to his right.

Cornet produced an impressive save from Krul at the other end midway through the half as the game produced an end-to-end flow, with Premier League survival increasingly at stake.

The potential turning point came at the end of the first half when Norwich were hanging on but courageously blocked three attempts at goal to maintain their one-goal advantage.

Norwich dominated the second interval but could have found themselves level after substitute Dwight McNeil overturned Sam Byram near the halfway line and powered upfield, hitting a searching ball across the box - but Cornet only connected with his shin and missed the gaping chance.

The Canaries sealed a deserved victory four minutes from time when Normann found Pukki in questionable space and he smashed home his side's second goal to secure three vital points.

The result heaps pressure on the visitors, who remain four points adrift of 17th-placed Everton.

Man of the match

Smith: We still believe

Norwich manager Dean Smith: "I think we defended our box really well when we had to because they put a lot of balls in there. We showed real quality on transition in the first half. We spoke to Pierre [Lees-Melou] - he has real quality - so we spoke about how he should get more goals and it's great to see that one go in for him, but the team's work ethic was really good today.

"Both teams have struggled for goals all season, so that first goal was always going to be important. We had to be resolute and dogged in our defending at times. We started to show quality, which has been lacking from low confidence, in the second half.

"I still think we can do better on the ball, we gave it away cheaply at times. As pleased as I am with the result, that's two clean sheets on the spin now. [This result] shows we are still fighting, we can stretch it to the distance where we can. That gives our dressing room an awful lot of belief. I've said to the players, if we win two or three on the spin then it all looks different."

Dyche: Opportunity missed

Burnley manager Sean Dyche: "It was a big step forward against Everton and a big step back today. The league table doesn't look any different, just a game less, so the challenge is still in front of us. We still have to close that gap, we've definitely missed a chance to do that today.

"There wasn't that much wrong with the performance, they get a lucky one, we take a lucky one - that happens sometimes. The truth of the season has been the quality in the final third, we get in so many good areas: the final pass, the final cross and the final finish as well. You saw that with Maxwel's finish and he's done brilliantly for us - but you can't miss those.

"But it's a team performance. You have to find more moments than that [chance]. We huffed and puffed around their goal area. We weren't opening them up as much as we'd liked, but that's a challenge in football, of course. An odd kind of freedom comes [from this result] because more people will be writing us off and we're often strong when written off."