Coventry City were beaten by two first-half goals on Wednesday 17th February 2021.
On Wednesday night at St Andrew’s, the Sky Blues were beaten 2-0 by Championship league leaders Norwich City.
Teemu Pukki and Emiliano Buendia’s first-half goals doomed City to loss, despite creating some strong opportunities in the second period.
As their difficult run of fixtures continues, City will now turn their attention to Saturday’s clash against promotion hopefuls Brentford.
With Ben Wilson, Kyle McFadzean, Jordan Shipley and Tyler Walker all returning to the starting line-up, Mark Robins made four improvements to the side defeated last weekend by Cardiff City.
When Pukki ran through on target before attempting to square the ball to Todd Cantwell only for his pass to go behind the midfielder with the goal at his mercy, the visitors produced the first opening of the game.
City nearly took the lead halfway through the first half when, under pressure from a Norwich defender, Julien Dacosta’s cross from the right was headed over the bar by Callum O’Hare from close range.
Norwich took the lead on 29 minutes as Emiliano Buendia played Pukki through before rolling the ball comfortably into the bottom left corner.
As Dimitris Giannoulis tried his luck from the left-hand side of the penalty box, flashing an effort wide of the post, the Canaries looked to add to their lead.
The onslaught proceeded as the head of Grant Hanley, whose strong effort was superbly saved by Ben Wilson, reached a corner from the right.
After Wilson had taken the sting out of Pukki’s initial attempt, City then cleared the ball off their own goal line with Shipley leading the ball to safety.
When Pukki took the ball off McFadzean before selflessly squaring for Buendia to finish in an open net, Norwich doubled their advantage in first half injury-time.
With Leo Ostigard and Max Biamou replacing Michael Rose and Jamie Allen, Robins made a double move at the interval.
Just before the hour mark, City sparked into life when Dacosta played an outstanding ball into the direction of Callum O’Hare, who took a splendid touch before seeing Tim Krul smother his attempt.
As Josh Pask’s cross was cleared to the edge of the penalty area and brought down by Gus Hamer, who shot a venomous effort inches past the left-hand post, the Sky Blues came close again.
Minutes later, the midfielder went on a mazy dribble, dribbling past several players before seeing Krul’s low attempt.
When Shipley delivered an excellent cross from the left that reached Pask at the back post with Krul equal to the defender’s header, City continued to explore a way back into the game.
When Cantwell saw Max Aarons’ run at the back post only for Wilson to make a clever saving to deny the right-back from near range, Norwich attempted to finish the game off.
As he was added for the final 10 minutes, Sky Blues captain Liam Kelly made his return from injury as City could not find a way past Krul in the Norwich net.
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