Watford 3-2 Norwich City: Brilliant Yaser Asprilla goal completes comeback victory for Hornets

Yaser Asprilla’s delightful strike completed a brilliant Watford fightback from two goals down against Norwich City.

Norwich seemed to be on course for a third consecutive victory as a header from Danny Batth and a stunning strike by South Korea forward Hwang Ui-jo put them two goals up after only 12 minutes.

Watford are made of sterner stuff under manager Valerien Ismael, however, and they fought back to parity after Ismael Kone’s fierce drive and a Mileta Rajovic header changed the game inside three minutes.

Norwich appeared to be turning their season around after wins over Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers but they remained unconvincing, despite hitting the Hornets with a quick double.

Watford only had themselves to blame in the third minute as Gabriel Sara swung a corner kick to the far post and Batth’s only competition was team-mate Hwang as he firmly headed home.

Vicarage Road was again stunned into silence after more slack work, this time from Ryan Porteous, who gifted Sara the ball on halfway.

He freed Hwang, who sent a dipping shot in an arc over the head of rooted goalkeeper Ben Hamer, standing in for the suspended Daniel Bachmann.

Hwang was forced off with an injury after 17 minutes and replaced by Ashley Barnes, but Kone fired Watford back into the reckoning, out of the blue on the half-hour mark, the ball arrowing into the bottom corner before Long could react.

The Norwich lead was rubbed out entirely three minutes later as Jamal Lewis stood up a cross to the far post and Rajovic tucked away his seventh league goal of the season.

Both sides were shooting on sight, as Norwich’s Adam Idah forced Hamer to parry, and at the other end Long had to be sharp to turn Asprilla’s rising drive over the bar and was then grateful to see Edo Kayembe’s fierce effort narrowly clear the bar.

That was part of a strong finish to the half by a resurgent Watford, and they kept up the pressure after the break, continuing to pepper the Norwich goal.

Kone struck the underside of the bar, and Kayembe forced Long into a full-length save, but the willingness to have a bash from range finally paid off in the 77th minute.

Defender Wesley Hoedt let fly from 25 yards to force the parry from Long which gave Asprilla the chance to show his twinkling footwork and take the three points.

Watford manager Valerien Ismael told BBC Three Counties Radio:

“After 2-0 we started our game. The players stayed calm, stuck to the gameplan, and bit by bit came back into the game, scored the first goal and came back quickly with the second goal.

“After that we knew we were back in the game and dominated and controlled Norwich completely.

“I am proud of the boys, the performance and attitude, the trust in each other to keep passing the ball and not blame anyone. For that it was a brilliant performance.

[On Kone]: “It was his best performance, a complete performance. We had a feeling when he came back from the international break he was really tired against Leicester but [tonight] he was rested, had slept for nine or ten hours, and gave us the feeling he was really ready.”

Norwich City manager David Wagner told BBC Radio Norfolk:

“We started very well. But unfortunately, the substitution of Ui-Jo shocked the players.

“This affected us and we were not able to come back to what we have shown in the first 30 minutes.

“You cannot do mistakes like us [did] before the goals, which we conceded. This is what costs us.

“Second half we didn’t play well in possession, we had so many missed passes.”