REPORT: Owls 1-0 Oxford
Atdhe Nuhiu opened his account for the new season as the Owls beat Oxford 1-0 to advance to round three of the Capital One Cup.The big man was on target early in the second half to put Wednesday through and the result could have been more convincing as the hosts bossed proceedings at Hillsborough.
But the one strike from Nuhiu proved sufficient and Carlos Carvalhal’s men learn the identity of their third round opponents later on Tuesday evening.
Wednesday started well and came close to taking the lead inside five minutes when a Ross Wallace corner was headed goalwards by Tom Lees but keeper Sam Slocombe parried wide.
Vincent Sasso then fired past the post from a tight angle before Wallace was inches away following good hold-up play from Nuhiu.
Next up was a Kieran Lee effort blocked by Sam Long as the Owls turned the screw and the breakthrough seemed only a matter of time away.
Bui to their credit, Oxford held out approaching the interval, although the visitors suffered a blow just before the whistle when Long left the field on a stretcher with an apparent knee injury.
And the U’s misfortune continued on 54 minutes as the Owls took the lead. Slocombe spilled a deep Wallace cross, Jack Hunt played the ball back towards goal and after a looping deflection, Nuhiu nodded home from close range.
The towering frontman went close five minutes later from an Alex Lopez corner before Oxford went mightily close to an equaliser with Callum O’Dowda smashing wide after finding space down the right of the area.
But play soon returned to the other end and Slocombe came to the rescue on 69 minutes when substitutes Modou Sougou and Marco Matias linked up superbly and the latter saw a low header beaten away.
Oxford pressed in the closing stages, leaving them exposed to the counter, and they almost paid nine minutes from time when Kieran Lee and Nuhiu broke but Slocombe did well to deal with the danger.
Owls: Price, Semedo, Nuhiu, Lavery (Matias 64), Lees, Helan, Lee, Lopez, Sasso, Hunt, Wallace (Sougou 64)