Stoke City vs Norwich City. Sky Bet Championship.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance23,002.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Norwich City at the bet365 Stadium on Saturday; Million Manhoef earns point for Potters after Ante Crnac struck for Canaries.
Saturday 19 October 2024 18:43, UK
Boss Narcis Pelach earned a point against his former club as Stoke played out a 1-1 draw with Norwich at the bet365 Stadium.
The Spaniard left his position as first-team coach at Carrow Road last month to take up the top job at Stoke after Steven Schumacher was relieved of his duties.
Ante Crnac opened his account for the Canaries after his summer move from Rakow Czestochowa before Million Manhoef pulled the Potters level in a chaotic six-minute period before half-time.
The Canaries' only change from their 4-0 demolition of Hull before the international break was in goal where George Long replaced the injured Angus Gunn and the stand-in stopper was called into action early when he saved Tom Cannon's goalbound effort.
Stoke played some nice football as they controlled the opening minutes and Manhoef almost picked out Lewis Koumas while Cannon saw his shot deflected behind for a corner.
Sweden international Viktor Johansson had mainly been a spectator for the opening 20 minutes before he pulled off a sharp save down to his right to keep out Marcelino Nunez from close range.
Johansson was called upon again minutes later to keep out Kenny McLean, who then dragged a shot wide.
The game burst into life on the stroke of half-time when some penalty box pinball saw substitute Oscar Schwartau's shot deflected and bounce kindly for Crnac to rifle home a half volley.
The hosts refused to go in at the break behind and Cannon, who scored four in Stoke's last home outing against Portsmouth, should have done better from Ben Wilmot's cross.
Undeterred, in the sixth minute of first-half stoppage time, Manhoef was given time and space to shift onto his left foot and bend his effort into the top corner.
Norwich went in search of re-establishing their lead after half-time through Josh Sargent, who latched onto Callum Doyle's knockdown before cutting inside and seeing his effort deflected.
Championship joint-top scorer Borja Sainz had been kept quiet in the first half but he was also played in by Doyle before Johansson comfortably saved the Spaniard's effort.
Then it was Stoke's turn to have sustained pressure once again.
First, Long had to get down sharply to thwart Andrew Moran after the Brighton loanee showed off some neat footwork in the box while Koumas blasted over.
Long was almost left red-faced when he unconvincingly came for a Manhoef corner, almost parrying it into his own net.
Sainz had one more attempt at earning Norwich all three points when he cut inside and fired goalwards but the spoils were shared.
Stoke's Narcis Pelach:
"I have the feeling that in the second half we could have won but I think it's fair to say the point is good for both teams, head-to-head, everyone wanting to win, a good football match.
"Enjoyable to see everyone going forward, everyone trying to get the win, and this is important because I told them it doesn't matter if it's Norwich, they have good feet, they play very well, but we need to defend our style as well.
"It was a good reaction after putting a lot of effort, a lot of energy into the game, a lot of intensity, and then 1-0 down, and one transition they will take advantage of this situation and score the second one.
"But we are working a lot from the mental point of view because we saw it the first game against Hull City how we went down after conceding a penalty, we don't need to panic."
Norwich's Johannes Hoff Thorup:
"I think there was more in it for us and I think especially based on the first half which was really, really good from our side. I think we could expect more in a game like this.
"Second half is too open, we have to defend too many corners and too many situations around our box, defending crosses and so on.
"It got a little bit too wild and I think they played even more vertical in the second half and even more passes in behind, even more runners in behind.
"I'm not satisfied with us giving away too many corners and free-kicks around the box because that's 50-50 situations, so many things can happen in these situations and it's not a game picture we want.
"We tried to change a little bit, towards the end of the second half we got the control we need and we want to be able to create the chances that we need to score that second goal but I don't think we were close enough.
"It's a tough league, there's so many good teams, especially away from home. You have to be concentrated for 90 minutes and accept there will be minutes in the game you have to defend more than you want."
