Norwich City will be satisfied to come out of the first leg of their playoff tie against rivals Ipswich Town with a draw, but there’s everything left to play for after their 1-1 deadlock, especially now that away goals are no longer a tiebreaker in the promotion playoffs.
3 things we learned from Norwich and Ipswich’s 1-1 playoff draw
The Canaries are slight favorites heading home, but were given a test on Saturday.
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The Tractor Boys had the first big chance to go ahead, forcing John Ruddy into a double save in the 8th minute. Freddy Sears was denied from close range after a cross by Daryl Murphy, and Luke Varney had his header off the rebound saved as well. Norwich got back into the game quickly, and Alex Tettey nearly scored in the 23rd minute, hitting the post from just outside the box.
Ipswich were forced into a change shortly afterwards, with Varney picking up a nasty lower-leg injury. Paul Anderson came on, and would eventually become Ipswich’s unlikely hero.
But first, Norwich got on the board, off a great goal in the 41st minute. Cameron Jerome turned his defender on the left flank and took off down the wing before hitting a perfect cutback ball towards the penalty spot. Johnny Howson was in the perfect spot and scored off an impressive first time finish.
Anderson’s goal came in stoppage time, off an impressive quick counter. A Sears shot was saved and Murphy’s poke at the rebound deflected away, right into the path of Anderson, who tapped in from inside the six-yard box.
The second half didn’t feature much but half-chances, with both teams defending well and unwilling to take serious risks going forward. There was plenty of intensity, but not much in the way of effective attacking play.
Ipswich Town: Bialkowski, Mings, Chambers, Smith, Berra, Skuse, Varney (Anderson 31'), Bru (Tabb 71'), Sears, Bishop (Parr 77'), Murphy
Goals: Anderson (45’)
Norwich City: Ruddy, Olsson, Bassong, Martin, Whittaker, Johnson, Towson, Tettey, Redmond, Jerome (Hooper 86'), Dorrans (Hoolahan 69')
Goals: Howson (41’)
3 things
1. Ipswich enforced their style - The Championship is generally associated with teams playing 4-4-2 or 4-5-1, in a physical and direct fashion, like English teams did in the ‘90s. The league has evolved past that for the most part, but Ipswich are the team that fits that stereotype the most out of the teams in the playoffs, and they imposed that style well in this game. Norwich had trouble controlling the match and never got into a great rhythm.
2. But they didn’t get a good enough result - Having said that, Norwich were still the slightly better side and will like their chances to advance after getting an away draw. They might not have been able to play their game, but they defended well and never looked under serious threat after conceding the equalizer just before halftime.
3. Norwich look like promotion favorites - On the evidence of the two games we’ve seen thus far, Norwich are living up to their third-place standing and their status as favorites to go up from the playoffs. Though, it’s worth noting that they lost both of their regular season matches against Middlesbrough.
