Norwich City moved a step closer to the Premier League with an emphatic victory over Huddersfield Town at Carrow Road on Tuesday night.


Story of the match


The Canaries had a bright start to proceedings and took a deserved lead after just eight minutes when Finnish striker Teemu Pukki fired past Joel Pereira from inside the box.

Norwich continued their dominance against the Terriers and shortly after, the former Celtic striker added his second goal of the game, beating Richard Stearman for pace before striking the ball past Pereira.

By this point, the floodgates were well and truly open and the Canaries added a third soon after, Emi Buendia’s long-range strike cannoning in off the post.

The disaster for Huddersfield continued, Todd Cantwell was the next to put his name on the scoresheet firing a cross from Buendia past Pereira.

But arguably the main moment of the opening half came when Buendia, who was imperious all night, struck an excellently worked free-kick onto the crossbar. What would’ve been an exceptional goal denied by the most narrow of margins.

The remarkable first-half display continued and Norwich found the time to add a fifth, Keiran Dowell wrapping off an excellent team goal placing the ball in from close range.

After the restart, Huddersfield had to withstand more pressure from Norwich before the sixth inevitably arrived, the third for Teemu Pukki who slotted a penalty past the suffering Joel Periera to tie up his hat trick.

The brightest moment for the visiting Huddersfield came from a well-worked set-piece in which the crossbar denied young right-back Demeaco Duhaney his first-ever senior goal. A rare opportunity on a miserable night for the West Yorkshire side.
 
After that, the Canaries added their seventh, Jordan Hugill had only been on the pitch a matter of moments when he added his name to the scoresheet.

The game finally settled down then and Norwich saw out the closing minutes with ease to move within touching distance of the Premier League. A pitiful night for the visiting Huddersfield Town, who are still far from safe at the other end of the League table.

Takeaways 

Norwich on the brink of the Premier League

The victory for the Canaries puts them very much on the brink of the Premier League. Their display on Tuesday was nothing short of incredible and shows their breathtaking qualities.

With the return to the top flight all but tied up, the Canaries can start to think about next season and yet another opportunity to establish themselves in the Premier League, they have been a cut above in the Championship this season.

Work to do for Huddersfield

On the wrong side of the beating was Carlos Corberan's Huddersfield Town, who will have suffered a significant confidence hit in their fight against relegation.

While Huddersfield's destiny is still very much in their own hands and they hold a significant margin over the bottom three, they can't afford displays like tonight's even if Norwich were pretty much unbeatable. 

Man of the Match - Emi Buendia 

The first half display of Norwich's Argentinan winger Emi Buendia is worthy alone of his selection as the man of the match. While Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki were also impressive, Buendia put in a showing of the highest order, causing Huddersfield all sorts of problems on the night.

With the return to the Premier League on the horizon, the Norwich winger will head into next season with significant confidence and could still cause a lot of damage between now and the end of the current season, as it's quite clear he's well above Championship standard. 

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