THE CARDIFF CITY Stadium hosts David Moyes’ men in the second of two Premier League games today.
As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. E-mail ben@thescore.ie, tweet @thescore_ie, post a message to our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.
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Cardiff City 2-2 Manchester United
AFTER THEIR CITY rivals hit Spurs for six earlier this afternoon, Manchester United travel to Wales to face Cardiff City for their first competitive meeting in 38 years.
The big team news is that Robin van Persie has not travelled beacuse of an injury picked up on internatinal duty. Here are the teams:
Cardiff City: Marshall, Taylor, Caulker, Turner, Theophile-Catherine, Medel, Whittingham, Mutch, Cowie, Odemwingie, Campbell. Subs: Lewis Hudson, Cornelius, Kim, Noone, Gunnarsson, Bellamy.
Manchester United: De Gea, Smalling, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Fellaini, Cleverley, Valencia, Rooney, Januzaj, Hernandez. Subs: Lindegaard, Buttner, Anderson, Giggs, Nani, Young, Welbeck.
Before the international break, the reigning Premier League champions defeated the current league leaders in a tightly-contested game which saw RVP scored the winner.
Cardiff, meanwhile, come into the game on the back of a defeat (to Aston Villa) but did earn victory over Welsh rivals Swansea the previous week.
The teams are out and we’re about to get going.
Cardiff attack early on and David de Gea has had to deal with a couple of balls into the box. First, he collects Gary Medel’s cross before saving a free-kick which is headed on.
On the stroke of five minutes, a pass from the right finds its way to Wayne Rooney who takes a touch before shooting. The effort is block, however.
And the United striker has already picked up a yellow card for kicking out at Jordan Mutch. Lucky not to have been shown a red there.
The Rooney incident. What do you think?
GOAL! Cardiff 0-1 Manchester United (Wayne Rooney)
Ben Turner plays a pass straight to Antonio Valencia and compounds the mistake by running out of position. The winger crosses where Hernandez flicks on to Rooney. He steps inside before firing home via a deflection.
Cardiff will be furious that Rooney is still on the field.
Fellaini comes close with a header from Januzaj’s cross.
Here’s the goal:
YouTube credit: FootballSoccerMulti
Half an hour gone and United still holding a narrow lead.
GOAL! Cardiff 1-1 Manchester United (Fraizer Campbell)
Super goal from the home side. Gary Medel plays to Peter Whittingham, who in turn finds Mutch. His through-pass to Campbell is inch-perfect and the former Man United youth player slots past De Gea.
Campbell isn’t far away with another chance moments later before Don Cowie skies a shot over from 15 yards out.
GOAL! Cardiff 1-2 Manchester United 2 (Patrice Evra)
United are back in front thanks to their captain. Rooney delivers the corner to the front post where Evra has lost his marker Gary Medel with a well-timed run to power in a header.
Half-time: Cardiff 1-2 Manchester United
And we’re back. United win a corner straight from the restart and Januzaj’s half-volley comes off Steven Caulker for another. Fellaini then rises highest but directs the header off target.
Two great saves from David Marshall in the past couple of minutes. The first is from a glancing header by Fellaini before Smalling tests the Cardiff stopper at his near post.
How cool does Cardiff owner Vincent Tan look?
Campbell is causing his old club more problems and strikes the crossbar with a fine hit.
United are far from their free-flowing best here but are still creating chances and Rooney has just headed over from a Valencia cross.
First substitute of the day is a Cardiff one. Peter Odemwingie comes off for Craig Noone who makes his Premier League debut.
Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler reveals that Noone once worked as a roofer on Steven Gerrard’s house. So now you know.
David Moyes then withdraws Januzaj for Danny Welbeck. It has been a quiet day for the Belgian.
Whittingham whips a free-kick into the danger zone and Cleverley gets a touch to take it just over the bar. De Gea gets a strong punch on the resulting corner.
The Cardiff crowd believe their side can get something here and are in full voice.
Cardiff-born Ryan Giggs, 40 next week, is on for Javier Hernandez.
Welbeck immediately involved and latches onto a nice pass from midfield but his touch is a little heavy.
Bo-Kyung Kim has been introduced in place of Jordan Mutch.
In a fine piece of link-up play, Rooney chests to Welbeck, he flicks over his head back to Rooney, who in turn plays in his striker partner. He’s unable to hit the target though.
Down the other end, Campbell leaps well to head a ball back across goal but when Cowie nods into a dangerous area it’s clear away.
4 minutes of added time to play.
GOAL! Cardiff 2-2 Manchester United (Bo-Kyung Kim)
Cardiff are level! A free-kick is swung into the box where the substitute gets his head onto the ball to direct it in. The stadium erupts.
WHAT. A. CHANCE. Rooney is through on goal with just Marshall to beat but decides to square it to Welbeck — allowing the goalkeeper to recover.
Then Smalling shoots wide when a free-kick falls at his feet.
Full-time: Cardiff 2-2 Manchester United
Two points dropped for United but Cardiff were good value for the draw. They stay 15th but are now level with Stoke while last year’s champions are sixth.
That’s all from me, thanks for the company.
