Norwich City produced such a magnificent all-round display inflicting Manchester City’s first Premier League defeat since January at an ecstatic Carrow Road.
The Canaries missed eight players. This did not make them look back. They made light in those injuries and took full advantage of the performance from the reigning champions that was characterized as careless to the extreme with chaotic defense.
Within the first 30 minutes, Norwich had 2 goals ahead of Man City after Kenny McLean rose unmarked to meet Emiliano Buendia’s corner. Then, Todd Cantwell finished with a flowing move involving Marco Stiepermann and Teemu Pukki.
Sergio Aguero’s header just before the break hinted at a Manchester City comeback. A misunderstanding between John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi saw Buendia rob Argentina center-back and set Pukki to score.
Rodri scored his first goal for Manchester City with two minutes left before referee Kevin Friend’s final whistle blew setting cue for wild celebrations and inflict a defeat that left Pep Guardiola’s side five points adrift of Liverpool.
Norwich- “A special day for us”
Norwich City manager Daniel Farke said, “of course it is a special day for us and for the club against one of the best teams in the world and especially when we have so many injuries.”
“We had to be special in our plan for City because we had setbacks with injuries. We deserve the win, we were exceptional.”
Daniel Farke went ahead to congratulate individual players in his club. He said, “Amadou was beautiful today, playing in an unusual position and a debut for Alex Tettey and Sam Byram too. I can’t praise the lads enough. We had so many to overcome.”
“Teemu was brilliant. Not only because of his goals but for his work rate too. Teemu always thinks about first, which is why he deserves all of the praises.”
Pep Guardiola
Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola also had comments to make concerning the match. He said, “Congrats to Norwich. The first goal was from a set-piece and the second on the counter. So, credit to them. It is what it is. We have to learn from this and carry on.”
“Our passing was not bad. We created chances but we could not score them. They are a good team with good players who have quality-we all saw that in the Championship last year. They were clinical today.”
“We did not have the urgency in the final third that we normally have. In football, you can’t always avoid mistakes. I don’t know how many shots we had or how many they had, but football is about goals and what you do in the boxes.”