Cardiff City vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
Cardiff City StadiumAttendance17,188.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City and Blackburn Rovers at the Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday; two goals from Andi Weimann and one from Lewis Baker help John Eustace's side to end their four-game barren run
Saturday 9 November 2024 15:58, UK
Blackburn ended a run of four games without a goal to claim a 3-1 win at Cardiff.
Andreas Weimann scored early in both halves to claim his first goals since August.
David Turnbull pulled a goal back for the hosts before Lewis Baker sealed Rovers' first win in five games with a perfectly-placed shot four minutes from time.
Both teams were looking to bounce back from midweek defeats when Cardiff saw their three-game winning run under Omer Riza come to a halt.
The caretaker manager is still waiting to learn whether he has done enough to secure the position full-time and admitted before kick-off the uncertainty was taking a toll.
Despite three defeats in a row, Blackburn boss John Eustace named an unchanged side from the latest loss to Stoke, which meant a 300th club appearance for Harry Pickering.
Riza made three changes from the loss at Luton that ended a six-game unbeaten run but Cardiff looked for vulnerable for them, particularly the loss of experienced centre-back Callum Chambers.
Alex Robertson returned from injury to midfield but looked off the pace as Rovers threatened with every counter-attack.
Cardiff goalkeeper Jak Alnwick had to be alert to snuff out an early chance for Todd Cantwell, who soon combined with Lewis Travis for the opening goal.
Travis' cross along the edge of the six-yard box handed Weimann an easy finish on 15 minutes.
Cantwell thought he had doubled the lead just five minutes later but was offside when he tapped in the rebound from Travis' effort.
Cardiff dominated possession but lacked a cutting edge without top-scorer Callum Robinson.
Ollie Tanner and Rubin Colwill brought a double save from Aynsley Pears before Chris Willock pulled his shot wide after being gifted an opening by Danny Bath's poor clearance.
Cardiff were made to pay for the miss just 60 seconds later when Rovers carved out a second for Weimann.
Pickering raced onto Travis' through ball on the left side of the box before finding Weimann unmarked in the centre of the box for an almost carbon copy of the first goal on 53 minutes.
Willock hit the post and Colwill's header brought an impressive save from Pears who also denied Turnbull from the penalty spot only to see Cardiff's midfielder first to the rebound for his first goal of the season.
But Baker settled the match just eight minutes after coming off the bench with a wonderful strike from just inside the left corner of the penalty area.
Cardiff caretaker Omer Riza:
"The first half was unacceptable. I told the boys that in no uncertain terms. You can't start games slowly, thinking you're going to have loads of time on the ball and that it would be easy, just thinking it's going to be easy and that the opposition are not going to come after you. We lacked intensity, urgency and an idea in the first half.
"When we spoke about prior to the game in terms of what we needed to do, we didn't stick to the game plan. We were our own worst enemy first half.
"Second half I thought the reaction was better. We tried to pressurise them a little bit more and have the ball a lot more. The other part of that, when we had the ball and we delivered into the box, was it with quality? Were our set pieces quality? Not really.
"We got back in the game with the penalty and it's 2-1, you're pushing for that second goal, the crowd are up, but we get hit with the sucker punch again because of the things we haven't done well, not recover, track runners or stop the opposition from scoring. Disappointing overall, but the second half was better."
Blackburn's John Eustace:
"I thought we were excellent. We played really good possession football and were clinical.
"We scored a fantastic first goal after about 40 passes. That goal was pure quality and the way we got up field was just outstanding.
"We knew we would come under pressure and defended in and around our box and the crosses coming in really well and then scored a second at the right time.
"We gave away a soft penalty which gave Cardiff a lifeline but the boys showed excellent character to get the third.
"We have a small squad with players unavailable but the players coming off the bench really competed and showed the same fight to make a difference and get us through.
"That performance sums up what you have to do to get an away win in the Championship."
