Norwich City vs Millwall. Sky Bet Championship.
Carrow RoadAttendance25,774.
Monday 1 January 2018 19:00, UK
Norwich recovered from a half-time deficit to beat Millwall 2-1 at Carrow Road and make it seven points from a possible nine over the festive period.
Trailing at the break to a stunning long-range effort from ex-Canary Steve Morison, the hosts responded in impressive fashion and fully deserved to take the three points.
Tom Trybull got them back on level terms six minutes after the interval, heading home a James Maddison free-kick and Maddison then fired home his seventh goal of the season with 13 minutes left to settle the issue.
The Canaries had much the better of the first half before going behind right at the end of it.
Their best chance came after just three minutes when Josh Murphy did well to pick out Nelson Oliveira at the back post, only for the Portuguese striker to steer his header narrowly wide.
Alex Pritchard and Murphy both tested 'keeper Jordan Archer from distance as the home side continued to dominate possession and it was not until the half-hour mark that Millwall had a clear sight of the Norwich goal, with Ryan Tunnicliffe firing well over from a decent position after latching on to a Morison flick-on.
With the home supporters becoming increasingly frustrated by a lack of clear-cut openings Pritchard was narrowly off target with another effort from outside the box before the Lions opened the scoring completely out of the blue a minute before the break.
There seemed no danger when Morison picked up a loose ball 30 yards out but the alert frontman quickly spotted 'keeper Angus Gunn slightly off his line and beat him with a superb strike into the top corner.
Norwich came out in the second half looking as though they meant business and were back on level terms just six minutes after the break.
Maddison floated in a free-kick and Trybull produced a perfectly-directed header into the far corner of the net, giving a diving Archer no chance. It was the German midfielder's first league goal for the Canaries.
It was all Norwich now and they almost moved ahead on the hour mark when Pritchard whipped in a dangerous ball from the right which Murphy only just failed to get on the end of,
The young winger came even closer to scoring in the 74th minute after cutting inside, with his curling drive from just inside the box clipping the crossbar.
A second Norwich goal just had to come and it finally arrived in the 77th minute when midfield stars Pritchard and Maddison combined to devastating effect.
Pritchard was the architect, picking out his colleague's run into the box with a delightful reverse pass and Maddison did the rest as he lashed the ball past an exposed Archer.
Daniel Farke: "At half-time we were thinking 'what have we done wrong?' because we had played really well and
created a lot of chances, only for them to put one away from 30 metres. But we continued to be the better side in the second half, scored two goals, created a lot of chances and also defended well. I thought we were brilliant and fully deserved the win."
(On transfer speculation around his players:) "It doesn't worry me because Stuart Webber (sporting director) and the board have told me there is no financial pressure to sell any players this month. There will always be rumours at this time of the year - that is football - but I am very relaxed about the situation. No-one has knocked on my door and
told me they want to leave."
Neil Harris: "To be honest I am raging with my players - and I have let them know in no uncertain terms what I thought of their second-half performance. We lacked all the things you need when you play a good team like Norwich - concentration, focus, leadership. The players have been brilliant for me this season, and especially in recent games, but I won't accept it when they let their standards drop like that."
