Cardiff City were held to a 1-1 draw by Sheffield Wednesday at Cardiff City Stadium.
Omer Riza elected to make three changes from the eleven that started the win against Blackburn Rovers before the international break. There were returns for Isaak Davies, Cian Ashford, and Will Alves, with Andy Rinomhota, Joe Ralls, and Callum Robinson the ones to miss out. There was also a return for Ollie Tanner, who was amongst the substitutes.
City made a very positive start to the contest and fashioned out some early chances. Davies’ volley into the ground was held by Pierce Charles, while Yousef Salech flicked a header just wide of the mark from Callum O’Dowda’s corner.
But the Bluebirds would be rewarded for their attacking endeavours with the opening goal 21 minutes in. After Alves made a darting run through the heart of the Wednesday defence, he laid the ball into the path of Davies, who drilled his strike into the corner of the net from the edge of the box.
The lead was almost doubled moments after the opener. Another O’Dowda corner caused havoc in the Owls box, and Salech once again was able to get his head onto it, but Charles palmed it away. However, the Dane managed to get his head onto the rebound, but saw the ball agonisingly past the post.
Chances for Danny Röhl’s were incredibly limited, with Josh Windass’ half chance the nearest they came to breaching Ethan Horvath’s net, but as the first half came to a close, the Bluebirds were well on top.
The visitors started the second half the brighter of the two and got themselves level just after the hour mark as Michael Ihiekwe headed in from Barry Bannan’s corner.
Yet, City weren’t perturbed by the setback and carried on trying to regain the lead. Twice Salech managed to get on the end of some inviting crosses, but one fell wide, while the other Charles had to stop with a full stretch save.
Neither side were able to enforce their dominance on the other for the rest of the half, and so the spoils were shared. Next up for City is an away trip to Loftus Road to take on QPR. Kick-off on Saturday, April 5th will be at 3pm.
FINAL SCORE: CARDIFF CITY 1-1 SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY
Cardiff City: Horvath, Ng (Colwill 86’), Fish, Bagan, O’Dowda, Chambers, Mannsverk (Turnbull 63’), Alves (El Ghazi 64’), Davies (Tanner 77’), Ashford, Salech (Méïté 86’). Substitutes: Turner, Goutas, Daland, Robertson.
Sheffield Wednesday: P. Charles, Chalobah (S. Charles 46’), Iorfa (Famewo 84’), Lowe (Ingelsson 46’), Bannan, Windass, Paterson (Smith 67’), Valentin, Ihiekwe, Hatsuse (Johnson 46’), Gassama. Substitutes: Beadle, Ugbo, Kobacki, Musaba.