Norwich City vs Leeds United. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance26,758.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Norwich City and Leeds United at Carrow Road on Saturday | Crysencio Summerville scores twice in stunning comeback by Daniel Farke's men
Saturday 21 October 2023 18:45, UK
Daniel Farke made a triumphant return to Carrow Road as his Leeds side hit back to record a dramatic 3-2 victory over his former club Norwich.
The Canaries were two goals to the good at the break, with Shane Duffy heading home early on and Gabriel Sara firing in just before the interval.
But Duffy scored at the wrong end to bring Leeds back into it just after the hour mark and a late double from star man Crysencio Summerville turned the match on its head and earned the visitors all three points.
The defeat continued a poor run from the Canaries while it maintained the upward momentum of the visitors, who have now lost just once in 10 Championship games.
It was an action-packed first half with Norwich scoring early and late and Leeds missing a whole host of chances in between.
The Canaries went in front after just four minutes when the first corner of the game from Sara was headed in at the near post by Duffy, with the defender's first goal for the club owing much to some poor marking from the visitors.
Farke's side reacted to the early setback in impressive fashion but lacked a killer touch in front of goal.
Summerville curled an effort just wide and Georginio Rutter fired straight at Angus Gunn before three presentable chances were wasted in the space in three minutes midway through the half.
Glen Kamara was off target after playing a neat one-two with Rutter and Joel Piroe also got his angles wrong after being put through by Dan James before Rutter fired another effort wide.
It was by no means all Leeds, however.
City also had their moments after the disruption of losing Gunn to what looked liked a thigh injury, with George Long coming on for his league debut on the half-hour mark.
Their efforts were rewarded on 43 minutes when they stretched their lead.
Onel Hernandez did well to pick out Sara in a crowded area after a burst down the left and the Brazilian midfielder muscled his way through some weak tackling to blast the ball home.
Leeds continued to press after the break but they needed a slice of good fortune to reduce the arrears on 63 minutes.
James did well to get to the byline after a swift counter-attack and his cross evaded Long before hitting the back-tracking Duffy and trickling over the line.
Illan Meslier did well to tip a curling free-kick from Sara around the post and then parry an effort from Jack Stacey as Norwich sought to restore their two-goal advantage.
But Leeds kept pushing and got a deserved equaliser on 77 minutes.
Norwich left Summerville unmarked on the edge of the box at a corner and were punished as the Dutchman fired home in impressive fashion, with his looping shot going in off the far post.
Leeds completed a dramatic turnaround as Summerville scored his second eight minutes later after Norwich had been caught short at the back when pushing forward.
Summerville had a clear run at goal from inside his own half and made the most of it as he powered forward before cutting inside and burying a low shot past the exposed Long.
Norwich City's David Wagner:
"In football you get praised if you win and criticised if you lose but sometimes you have to look beyond the result. I have mixed emotions because although I am obviously disappointed with the result there were many things about our performance that pleased me. My job is not to get carried away if we win of it we lose. It is to look at the performance and if we continue to perform at a good level like that we will start winning games again.
"We were up against a very good side and that is why we conceded more chances than we would normally do. But we created plenty ourselves and I feel really sorry for the lads because they have put in a real shift out there. I saw plenty of good things although I was not happy with the way we defended for the first and third goals and that is something we need to look at."
Leeds' Daniel Farke:
"I am exhausted and ready for the sofa after that. It was a great game, a really good advert for the Championship between two good sides. Norwich made it very difficult for us, as I knew they would, but in the end I thought it was a deserved win. In the first half we created more chances than you would expect but we missed them and Norwich scored twice. Normally when you are 2-0 down at half-time you would say there was something wrong but I thought, no, we are playing well. We just need to stay on it and be more clinical and we were.
"It was a brilliant second half for us and a massive three points and all the praise has to go to the players. These sort of wins are the best when it comes to building up confidence and we are all delighted. It was quite emotional for me coming back to Norwich, which will always be a special place for me. I had four-and-a-half unbelievable years here. So I didn't think it would be right to dance around and celebrate over the moon, even though I was so happy with my lads."
