Cardiff City 2-2 Sheffield United: Blades Involved in Four Goal Thriller in South Wales

Sheffield United were forced to settle for a hard-fought 2-2 draw away at Cardiff City on Saturday afternoon, following a breathless opening that saw all four goals scored in the opening 45 minutes.

In the second half, the Blades had to rely on purposeful defending and heroics from Michael Cooper to leave the game with a point.

Cardiff: Trott, Bagan, Osho, Bielik (Scanlon 90), Moylan (Davies 84), Salech (Robinson 84), R. Colwill, Tanner (Willock 72), Robertson, Ng, Ashford (J. Colwill 84).

Unused: Tryer, Turnbull, Tankiewicz, Kpakio.

Blades: Cooper, McCalllum, Tanganga, Rothwell (Riedewald 65), Cannon (Brereton Diaz 84), O’Hare, Donovan (Shackleton 45), McGuinness, Baptiste (Norrington-Davies 58), Peck, Bamford (Phillips 45).

Unused: Davies, Doherty, Campbell, Marsh.

The match exploded into life almost immediately, with the hosts taking the lead inside two minutes. Rubin Colwill won possession in midfield and released the ball to Cian Ashford, who fed summer signing Jack Moylan. Moylan cut inside Jamal Baptiste and fired a low effort into the near-post corner.

However, Cardiff’s lead was incredibly short-lived. Three minutes later, Tom Cannon was brought down in the box, who stepped up and evened the score for the Blades.

Eight minutes into the game, the Blades had already completed an entertaining turnaround. A heavy touch from Robertson allowed Patrick Bamford to pounce, quickly feeding Callum O’Hare with a clever pass. O’Hare raced through on goal and calmly slotted past Nathan Trott to make it 2-1.

Cardiff began to gradually regain their composure and began to dominate the ball. Joel Bagan saw a dangerous effort tipped over by Michael Cooper before the Bluebirds found their equaliser in the 38th minute. Ollie Tanner powered his way into the box and hit a low shot that Cooper did well to save, but the rebound fell perfectly for Ashford to convert, sending the side level at half-time.

The second half was largely one-way as Cardiff pinned United back, searching relentlessly for a winner. The home side won a succession of corners and continually broke the Blades’ defensive line.

United had to rely heavily on their shot-stopper continuously. Cooper produced what was arguably his best save of the afternoon to deny Moylan, diving across goal to keep out a header destined for the back of the net.

Chris Wilder made a series of changes to try and change the flow of the game, introducing Kalvin Phillips, Jamie Shackleton and Rhys Norrington-Davies, but Cardiff continued to dictate the tempo.

The Bluebirds came painfully close to taking all three points in the 84th minute when Perry Ng’s strike rattled the crossbar. The rebound fell to Yousef Salech, who really should have scored, but was unable to bring the ball under control.

The Blades are next in action at home against newly promoted Bolton Wanderers in midweek.