Norwich City dominate but fail to find way past inspired David Marshall

Norwich City 0-0 Cardiff City

As predicted by myself, the game at Carrow Road was a game that neither team could afford to lose, rather than a game that any team wanted to gamble to try and win. The whole game was marred by Norwich City midfielder Leroy Fer, who was heavily criticised by Cardiff City boss Malky Mackay after his pivotal role in a contentious finale to the Canaries’ 0-0 Premier League draw at Carrow Road. Referee Mike Jones controversially disallowed Fer’s strike after fellow Dutchman Ricky van Wolfswinkel opted to throw the ball to his team-mate rather than Cardiff’s David Marshall after the goalkeeper had put the ball out of play for an injury to Alex Tettey.

Key Stats:

The main statistic from this game shows the dominance of Norwich throughout the game and why The Canaries fans will go home from this game wondering why their team didn’t score on Saturday. Norwich overall, had 26 shots on target – unbelievably, none of them shots finding the back of the Cardiff City net. The game was end-to-end from start to finish, both teams having chances during a truly compelling game.

Norwich dominated possession during a breathless first-half packed with goalmouth action, former Canaries ‘keeper David Marshall, twice saved athletically from Gary Hooper, while the post came to his rescue to deny Jonny Howson, ensuring it remained goalless at half-time. Cardiff were not without chances of their own. For them, the main opening was provided by Fraizer Campbell, who harried Norwich into conceding an early corner from which Steven Caulker headed narrowly wide when he ought to have scored. John Ruddy then brilliantly prevented Jordon Mutch from adding to his goal at Chelsea, spreading himself bravely to push the Cardiff midfielder’s shot over the bar. Mackay introduced Aron Gunnarrsson and Don Cowie at the break, slowing the pace of the game – much to Norwich’s frustration. Chris Houghton then withdrew Hooper for Johan Elmander to appalling chants of “you don’t know what you’re doing” from home supporters. As an eerie atmosphere surrounded Carrow Road, another substitute, Nathan Redmond, twice came close late on but found Marshall in fine form.

Man of the Match:

Unsurprisingly, the Cardiff City goalkeeper David Marshall was given our Man of the Match award for this game. This perfectly shows how the game proceeded. Any time a goalkeeper of any side is given the Man of the Match award, it shows he’s had a lot to do – this is exactly the case in David Marshall’s rewarding of Man of the Match. Nine shots the Cardiff goalkeeper had to deal with – all of which the Scot did very well in doing just that. Norwich won’t be pleased that they couldn’t take three points from this game but when you come up against a goalkeeper in the form Marshall was, there’s not much you can do.

Performance Score:

As you can see from the performance score graph, both teams score-line’s consistently rise to a higher and higher level as the game went on, this shows that the game was one of a top quality nature. As you can also see from the graph, Norwich, from the 10th minute onwards, were the better team based on our performance score. This is more evidence that Marshall is more deserving of the Man of the Match award than anybody else, it exemplifies that he had to stop a Norwich team that were constantly on top of his own team in terms of attacking prowess. It also portrays how disappointed Norwich fans will be and how this result could’ve kicked started their season but they couldn’t get that goal – even though being on top for the majority of the game.

Key Observations:

The ridiculous amount of clearances Cardiff had to make throughout the game further proves how dominant Norwich were on Saturday afternoon. 64 clearances in total had to be made by the Wales-based side, all of which were inside their own half. Although statistics show Norwich as the clearly better team from this game, Malky Mackay will be telling his players that they got as much out of the game as Norwich did and although Norwich dominated, Cardiff should be proud that they kept The Canaries out for 90 minutes and have came out of the match with their own (sort of) victory.