Huddersfield Held to Goalless Draw By Dogged 10-Man Swansea
Huddersfield had to settle for a frustrating 0-0 draw against Swansea at the John Smith's Stadium, despite playing 80 minutes against 10 men after Jordan Ayew's early red card.
David Wagner made three changes from the team that lost to Spurs at Wembley last week, with Aaron Mooy, Tom Ince and Scott Malone replacing Danny Williams, Colin Quaner and Terence Kongolo. Swansea were unchanged from the side that demolished West Ham last time out.
The game's first major incident was a highly controversial one. Jordan Ayew lost control of the ball in midfield and lunged into a tackle in an attempt to win it back, raking his studs down Jonathan Hogg's shin. It wasn't malicious but it was a nasty challenge, and after some deliberation, Ayew was dismissed.
As Huddersfield sought to take immediate advantage, Alfie Mawson plowed into a silly tackle which could have seen Swansea reduced to nine men if he had made full impact. As it was, the challenge only skimmed Alex Pritchard but Mawson was booked anyway.
The game effectively became an attack-versus-defense training session, with Huddersfield probing the Swansea defense, whose aimless clearances offered no respite. Despite this, and possession statistics of over 80%, the Terriers were struggling to create clear-cut openings.
It wasn't until the 42nd minute that Huddersfield created a chance of note, with Steve Mounie heading just wide from Mooy's cross. Ince also hit the target with his free-kick, but it was easy pickings for Lukasz Fabianski.
Swansea continued to sit back and absorb pressure in the second half, and Hogg's daisy-cutter flashed inches wide for Huddersfield. The best chance so far came on the hour mark, when Florent Hadergjonaj's cross found Mounie on the edge of the box, but the Benin striker found the side-netting.
Mounie nearly redeemed himself in spectacular fashion moments later when he smashed a volley which forced Fabianski into a world class save, tipping the ball onto the crossbar. A clever corner from Mooy then gave Hadergjonaj a chance from the edge of the box, but his curling effort was just beyond Fabianski's post.
With a quarter of the match to go, David Wagner made the perplexing decision to replace Mooy - by far their most creative player - with Danny Williams. The persistent attacks continued, but Huddersfield's momentum had gone.
The home supporters kept up a brilliant atmosphere right until the end, and they nearly got their reward when Ince's header struck the crossbar in injury time. A game high on entertainment but low on quality ended 0-0, a much better result for Swansea than Huddersfield.
