Cardiff City fell to an opening day defeat as they were beaten 2-0 by Sunderland this afternoon.
Cardiff started the more positive side. The Bluebirds’ first chance fell to Dimitrios Goutas, the defender met a cross from Ollie Tanner but was denied by a fully stretched Anthony Patterson.
Sunderland punished The Bluebirds for not capitalising on their dominance, as Luke O’Nien put the visitors in front after seventeen minutes.
Cardiff reacted fairly well to the goal, with Chris Willock having a shot blocked inside the box. Willock once again found himself in and around the box and found Callum Robinson, the striker was denied by Patterson.
Horvath was called into action just after the hour mark. Mayenda found himself one-on-one with the American, Horvath denied the forward.
Meite made an impact off the bench, as he cut inside Cirkin and had a shot goal bound, but a last stitch block was enough to deny Yak.
Jack Clarke doubled the visitors lead late on, and secured all three points for Sunderland.
Player Ratings:
Ethan Horvath (6) - Kept City in it on a couple of occasions. Not sure how much he can do for either goal. Distribution wasn’t great, however neither was the movement when Horvath had the ball.
Perry Ng (5.5) - Loses O’Nien for Sunderland’s opener. A couple of nice pieces going forward but never really found much rhythm.
Calum Chambers (6) - Had Mayenda’s number and made easy work of him. Looked comfortable on the ball. Another that was victim of a lack of movement from his team mates.
Dimitrios Goutas (5.5) - Some decent defensive work. Incredibly frustrating on the ball, overusing the safe ball rather than switching things up.
Callum O’Dowda (6.5) - Got up and down well, and put a trademark O’Dowda performance in really. A couple of good crosses as well.
Manolis Siopis (7) - Mopped up really well. Coped with the ball under pressure fairly well. Did the dirty work really well.
Aaron Ramsey (6.5) - Grew into the game. Looked sloppy in the first half, however came on a different player in the second half, looking to make things happen, nothing quite came off for the midfielder.
Joe Ralls (6) - Did some nice work driving forward and picking some decent passes. Used the safe option instead of turning into the space ahead of him, which caused slight frustration. Worked well with Meite.
Ollie Tanner (5.5) - Tanner started really well, looked energetic and aggressive. Things faded out eventually. Some good defensive work, but not a great deal going forward.
Chris Willock (7) MOTM - Cardiff’s bright spark offensively. Linked really well with O’Dowda down the left. More to come but an encouraging start.
Callum Robinson (6) - Robbo worked extremely hard, especially off the ball, however wasn't found often enough. Had a couple of half chances. Arguably could’ve had a penalty.
Subs:
Yakou Meite (6.5) - Yak was positive when he came on. His first effort was a good one and goal bound, just an unfortunate block. Encouraging.
Wilfried Kanga (6.5) - Another who added when they came on. Worked hard. No real chances in front of goal. Looked solid.
David Turnbull (6) - Tidy performances, perhaps came on ten minutes too late.
Rubin Colwill (6) - Same as above.
Summary:
It wasn't a bad performance by a long shot, but plenty to work on. Just lacked fluidity and pace at times, but players like Robertson and El Ghazi help fix that. Patience needed.
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