Daniel Farke hails ‘wonderful team performance’ as Norwich close in on promotion

Norwich manager Daniel Farke felt his side had hit new heights after watching them thrash Huddersfield 7-0 at Carrow Road to move to within touching distance of promotion to the Premier League.

Teemu Pukki led the way with a hat-trick as the Canaries turned on the style to move 17 points clear of third-placed Brentford, who were held to a goalless draw by Birmingham.

Norwich now need just five points from six games to be certain of promotion, but will go up on Saturday if they win at Derby and other results go their way.

“It is difficult to compare different games but this was a fantastic night for us, a wonderful team performance,” said Farke.

“Many times this season we have played really well and have only won by one or two goals but tonight we were really clinical. We scored some brilliant team goals and I really enjoyed watching my team.

“Only a few days ago Huddersfield held Brentford to a draw and they had not conceded many goals before tonight. We knew it wouldn’t be easy but everything came together tonight.

“It was not just the goals, our mentality was top class and everyone worked very hard. At times we made it look simple – that showed how well we played.”

Farke was full of praise for Pukki and midfielder Emi Buendia, who contributed a goal and three assists.

The German added: “I have said many times that Teemu is the best striker in this division and Emi is the best attacking midfielder and you saw that again tonight. But they are also great team players who work very hard for their team-mates.

“It was a great night but we still need a few more points to get over the line and we must continue to stay focused, which I am sure the players will do.”

Pukki struck in the eighth and 20th minutes to open the floodgates before crisp strikes from Buendia and Todd Cantwell made it 4-0 before the half-hour mark.

Kieran Dowell rounded off a slick move to make it 5-0 just before the break and a Pukki penalty and substitute Jordan Hugill’s goal completed the rout in the second half.

Huddersfield head coach Carlos Corberan apologised to the supporters watching at home after the game.

“We feel so sorry for our people – all the staff, all the players do – because we are embarrassed by the performance and the result,” he said.

“We cannot just forget this match and move on to the next one straight away. We need to feel the pain of this defeat, just like our supporters.

“They were too much better than us and we just didn’t have the answers.

“It was a night when everything went wrong for us. We had a plan to stay compact and compete well. I told the players to take care of the first 20 minutes – that would be the key to the rest of the game. Unfortunately that was the key to the result, but not in the way we wanted.

“I must take responsibility as head coach – the plan I had for this match didn’t work, the ideas I gave to the players didn’t work. Literally everything went wrong.”