sábado, 11 de febrero de 2012

Swansea City 2 - 3 Norwich City

The Norwich City captain Grant Holt scored twice in the second half as Paul Lambert's side came from behind to claim a thrilling victory and climb to eighth in the Premier League table.

Norwich enjoyed the better of the opening half, but trailed at the interval after Danny Graham coolly slotted in the opener from Nathan Dyer's pass in the 23rd minute. But Norwich were ahead within six minutes of the restart as Holt's header deflected in off Ashley Williams and Anthony Pilkington's strike ricocheted in off Neil Taylor, with Holt slotting the third from a tight angle just after the hour mark.

Holt marred his performance by giving away a late penalty for pulling back Williams, Graham converting, but Norwich survived a series of frantic Swansea attacks to become only the second side, after Manchester United, to beat the Welsh club on their own turf this season.

Norwich settled the better of the two sides, pressing high up the pitch and enjoying some joy with Simeon Jackson running at Angel Rangel down the Swansea right. Williams made a timely intervention to deny Jackson an easy finish after Adam Drury had got in around the back.

However, it was Swansea who took the lead against the run of play in the 23rd minute. Gylfi Sigurdsson linked well with Dyer and the winger played in Graham for the striker to score his 11th goal of the season.

Norwich's best chance of the half fell to Andrew Surman, but the midfielder's diving header from Pilkington's brilliant cross was straight at Michel Vorm.

Swansea should have doubled their lead just before half-time after Dyer and Scott Sinclair had teed Graham up for a tap-in, only for Elliott Ward to brilliantly deny the striker.

But Norwich turned the game on its head as they grabbed two goals within six minutes of the restart. Firstly, Holt headed in via a deflection off Williams after Surman had done well to keep Martin's skied attempt at a volley in play on the byline.

And another deflection helped the visitors claim their second as Elliott Bennett teed up Pilkington, who saw his shot strike Neil Taylor, who had put through his own net in Swansea's last home game against Chelsea, and deceive Vorm to put the visitors in front.

At the other end Steven Caulker struck the post from a Sigurdsson corner between the two goals, while Sinclair was guilty of a poor headed miss from a Dyer centre.

But Swansea were being overrun, and when they conceded possession in midfield Bennett made the most of a three-on-two situation to feed Holt for the striker to beat Vorm from a tight angle.

Kyle Naughton then came with inches of making it 4-1 as his rising angled drive was tipped on to the bar by a full-stretch Vorm.

Having done so much to put his side in control Holt then needlessly gave away a penalty for pulling back Williams, with Graham scoring from the spot to set up a tense final few minutes.

But the striker could not complete his hat-trick as he skewed wide in stoppage time before Ruddy brilliantly denied Caulker's point-blank header to seal the victory.

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario