Swansea cruise to win over Derby

Press Association Sport Staff

Swansea remained unbeaten in this season’s Championship after goals from Joseph Opoku, Eom Ji-sung and Ronald secured a convincing 3-0 win at Derby.

Opoku netted for the second time following his summer move from Belgian outfit Zulte Waragem, while Eom – the architect of that opener – then got on the scoresheet himself just before half-time with only his second league goal since November. Ronald added a deserved third in second-half stoppage time.

The routine victory meant Vitor Matos’ men have collected seven points from a possible nine, while out-of-sorts Derby are still waiting for their first win of the new campaign.

Earlier, Ryan Hedges had the ball in the net for the hosts after just 18 seconds, but that was the nearest John Eustace’s men would get to the Swansea goal during a sluggish opening half-hour in which they did not muster a single shot that counted.

The visitors, meanwhile, struck from for their first attack in the second minute. Eom was allowed to run unopposed with the ball through the left channel before pulling the ball back for Opoku, whose deflected 12-yard drive spun into Jacob Widell Zetterstrom’s bottom-right corner.

The Ghanaian attacker almost added a second when his acrobatic volley just cleared Zetterstrom’s crossbar following Stephen Welsh’s floated ball into the six-yard box.

Derby will have been relieved to see Opoku exit the action midway through the half due to injury. But the Swans continued to threaten down the right, with Zetterstrom unconvincingly spilling a Melker Widell shot to safety and Adam Idah flashing a far-post effort wide.

The Rams finally offered a response but Max Johnston could only find the side-netting from an unfavourable angle and Eom made it 2-0 in the 44th minute.

The South Korea international followed up to roll the ball into an unguarded net from a yard out after Zetterstrom had saved well down to his right to keep out Idah’s header from Widell’s right-wing cross.

Triple substitution

An unhappy Eustace made a triple substitution at half-time and Derby briefly rallied, with Lewis Travis and Charlie Taylor both seeing long-range attempts deflected away from goal.

But soon afterwards, Zetterstrom made two saves to keep his team in the contest. First, Swans sub Zan Vipotnik should have done better when he shot straight at the Swedish international after Moussa Yeo had combined brilliantly down the left wing with Eom.

Then, Zetterstrom kept out a near-post Yeo drive after Lawrence Vigoroux’s long forward punt had sent him sprinting clear through the right channel far too easily.

Ronald went on to wrap up matters when he fired into Zetterstrom’s bottom-right corner from the edge of the box after Stephen Eustaquio’s shot had been blocked.

Toothless Derby were booed off at the final whistle, having failed to score for the first time in 24 league games at Pride Park – a run stretching back to last September.

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