Cardiff City were defeated by Leeds United on Saturday afternoon at Cardiff City Stadium.
City made two changes to the team that played Derby County, bringing in Ollie Tanner for Anwar El Ghazi and Will Fish for his first start for the Bluebirds in place of Dimitros Goutas.
The away side began with a series of half chances, forcing good defensive action early on from City with a number of blocks, interceptions and slide tackles from the back line. Illia Gruev’s early effort sailed comfortably over the crossbar.
However, with 24 minutes on the clock, Joel Bagan was sent off for the home side following an apparent pull on Largie Ramazani outside the box, which was deemed a goalscoring opportunity by the referee. The resulting free kick was saved well by keeper Jak Alnwick, pushing the ball past the post from Max Aaronson’s effort.
Although, it was 1-0 on the half hour mark, as Gnonto again found himself behind the City defence, and converted with his left foot into the corner.
Rubin Colwill then tested Ivan Meslier for the first time that afternoon, with his long ranged free kick hit hard and low, but the Frenchman collected comfortably.
Some more big saves from Alnwick kept the deficit to just one goal, denying Ramazani a second and an effort from Mateo Joseph.
After the break, the City keeper kept the home side in the contest once again, this time saving Patrick Struijk’s penalty with his boot.
Colwill again was involved looking to level up the scoring, picking up the ball on the edge of the box, cutting in onto his right foot, but was unable to keep the effort down on target.
It was 2-0 shortly after through substitute Joel Piroe, who fired home with a left footed effort in the area with minutes to go.
Anwar El Ghazi came close to immediately responding for the Bluebirds, however, he was denied by a strong save from Meslier.
City's next game is a trip to Hull City on Saturday 28th September 3:00pm kick off.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 0-2 LEEDS UNITED
Cardiff City: Alnwick, Ng, Chambers, Fish, Bagan, Ralls (Robertson 59’), Siopis (Willock 79’), R. Colwill, O’Dowda (Ashford 79’), Tanner (El Ghazi 59’), Kanga (Collins 45’). Subs not used: Horvath, Goutas, Rinomhota, Turnbull.
Leeds United: Meslier, Bogle (Byram 84’) Firpo, Rodon, Struijk, Ampadu, Gruev (Rothwell 90’), Ramazani (Piroe 84’), Gnonto (Schmidt 90’), Joseph (Tanaka 90’) Subs not used: Darlow, Debayo, Crew, Bamford.