Norwich City 1-1 Queens Park Rangers: Wasteful Canaries fail to exceed seven points

Wasteful Norwich City squandered the opportunity to go seven points clear at the top of the championship when they tied with Queens Park Rangers.

Norwich finally found the net on his 20th attempt as Teemu Pukki converted a penalty after Cantwell fell under a challenge from Dominic Ball.

But the Rangers salvaged a point they didn’t deserve when Bright Osayi-Samuel scored his own penalty after Christoph Zimmermann’s challenge on him.

The visitors could even have won it in injury time when Osayi-Samuel managed to miss an open goal from two yards.

Canarias are five points ahead of second-placed Bournemouth, which has one game less, while Rangers remain in 19th place.

Kenny McLean, Emiliano Buendia and Mario Vrancic made decent efforts in the first half for Norwich, although the best chance of the period came when Elias Chair made his way for the Rangers but was forced to deflect by a combination of Zimmermann and goalkeeper Michael. McGovern and the opportunity was to beg.

Norwich took a hit late in the half when McGovern suffered an injury – the Northern Ireland goalkeeper had been replacing starter Tim Krul and had to be replaced by 19-year-old English Football League rookie Daniel Barden.

Barden was a spectator for much of the second period, as Seny Dieng did well to save Buendia and Pukki, while Rob Dickie cleared Jacob Sorensen’s shot off the line while Norwich looked constantly dangerous.

Pukki’s penalty was well deserved, but it propelled the Rangers into action when Barden tapped a header from a corner before the visitors tied.

And the Rangers should have returned to West London with all three when Albert Adomah broke the forehand and put a perfect low pass through Norwich’s goal that caught Osayi-Samuel at the far post, but the attacker somehow managed to put on the bar when it was easier to score.

Norwich City head coach Daniel Farke told BBC Radio Norfolk:

“We deserved to win this match. It was a difficult match against a brave team that dominates possession quite often, even in matches against the best teams.”

“We knew we had to be completely on fire today, I think we played a more than solid first half, a high intensity game, we controlled everything.

“We scored a brilliant team goal, a great pass from Teemu and a great goal from Todd, but it was disallowed, I’ve seen it back and I think it’s clear.”

QPR manager Mark Warburton told BBC Radio London:

“Every point is really important. It’s a tough place, you have to take a little pressure, you have to be determined, you have to defend in shape, get first contact and then you have to be dangerous, you have to pose a threat. We did that. .

“It was a very bad decision for the penalty, a shocking decision, that we have had too many this season. But they responded very well, they showed real character, real quality, real desire, they got the draw and really could have cut it right at death there with a great opportunity.

“The players deserve a lot of credit, they stuck to the game plan and worked tirelessly for 90 minutes.”