Stoke City 2-2 Cardiff City: Ben Gibson's late strike denies Bluebirds overdue first away win of 2024/25

Stoke captain Ben Gibson atoned for his own goal with a last-gasp equaliser in their 2-2 draw against fellow Sky Bet Championship strugglers Cardiff.

Gibson had put into his own net as the Bluebirds came from behind at the bet365 Stadium to come within seconds of recording their first away win since April.

But they were made to settle for a point that at least lifted them out of the relegation zone as both teams' winless runs extended to seven games.

Eric Bocat's ball over the top gave Stoke top scorer Tom Cannon a second-minute sight of goal, but he could not finish from a tight angle after going around Cardiff goalkeeper Jak Alnwick.

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Then came a big opportunity for Cardiff after 13 minutes when Callum O'Dowda's low ball ran through to Andy Rinomhota whose shot was comfortably saved by Viktor Johansson.

The Bluebirds were made to rue that missed chance when Stoke took the lead in the 17th minute as Moran finished into the roof of the net after Alnwick could only push Million Manhoef's shot from outside the area into his path.

Cardiff drew level in the 32nd minute when Tatsuki Seko headed Chris Willock's cross out as far as Joe Ralls and his volley was deflected through for the unattended Anwar El Ghazi to tap in at the back post.

Willock then bent an effort from 25 yards over after he had been allowed to advance a long way before Lewis Koumas shot wide after robbing Rinomhota of possession in the Bluebirds' area.

he teams went into half-time all square, but Manhoef had a chance to restore Stoke's lead seven minutes into the second half when his effort was saved by Alnwick after his initial shot had been blocked.

Cardiff then came within a whisker of completing the turnaround in the 55th minute when Calum Chambers' cross was cleared straight to Yakou Meite whose volley into the ground came back off the bar.

The Bluebirds did go ahead in the 72nd minute when Willock's shot was beaten away by Johansson only for the rebound to bounce off the luckless Gibson and into his own net.

The visitors came close to sealing the points when Manolis Siopis fizzed a low drive wide with two minutes left.

It looked like a vital victory for Omer Riza's side was safe when Alnwick did brilliantly to save from Emre Tezgel after Ben Wilmot had headed Seko's ball into the box back across.

But Alnwick quickly went from hero to zero with Gibson moving in the opposite direction as the Stoke captain headed into an empty net after the Cardiff stopper came and missed Lynden Gooch's free-kick.

The managers

Stoke's Narcis Pelach:

"Of course I understand [the booing], and they are right to do it.

"I'm not angry with this because they are not pleased with what they have seen and I'm on the same page because we need to go on the football pitch and compete better than we did.

"There is a feeling of anger and disappointment - I'm really disappointed with the performance we put in today and I feel like this is unacceptable.

"Of course I am responsible for this, but we have to compete much better than we did today.

"We talk about competitiveness and at the minute, it looks like we don't understand what it is.

"Competing in football means win your duels and win your second balls, and we lost plenty of that, so of course it is my responsibility but if we want to win this league, we need to win duels and second balls.

"If the 50-50 ball is for them and not for you, you are defending and not attacking."

Cardiff's Omer Riza:

"The main thing about today's game was a reaction off the Preston game because it was unsatisfactory from all our standards.

"I'm very pleased with them in respect to how they performed and the way we went 1-0 down and still showed the desire and the grit to get back in the game.

"We were very close to getting a win and we're disappointed not to take three points.

"If I need to make changes because I'm not happy with what happened the previous week, there's players who can come in and do a job and, to a man, today they were excellent, so I was pleased with that.

"To take three points today coming off a loss against Preston at home would have been brilliant for us, and they deserved three points, but if you give fouls away around the edge of the box in the 95th minute, you always put yourself in dangerous waters."

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