Stoke City have been held to a goalless draw by Cardiff as both sides were unable to find a finishing touch. Stoke were looking for their fourth win on the spin coming into this match while Cardiff were bidding for a third. However, chances weren’t taken at either end in the first half at the bet365 Stadium and were at a premium in the second.
With both teams in form, the game was always going to be relatively close and scrappy. The draw sees Stoke claim 10 points out of the last 4 games which puts them 12th in the table with 20 points. Cardiff started the day 5th in the table and in a playoff position but now see themselves fall out of the playoffs as Preston picked up 3 points against Coventry.
Before the game, the last post played with the stadium in silence as a tribute to the lives that were lost in World War One. This was followed by a minute silence.
Stoke had the majority of the possession up to the break and Dwight Gayle had two decent opportunities. The first was made by Wouter Burger galivanting down the right wing and clipping a low cross in with the outside of his left foot. Gayle controlled on the corner of the six-yard box but sent a bouncing shot past the far post. The Potters also had the ball in the back of the net, as a ball was played across goal to Hoever who cooly slotted the ball in but Dwight Gayle was caught offside.
Just like Alex Neil said before the game, Cardiff were strong at set pieces as they had a very tall and physically dominant side. This physical dominance resulted in a couple half chances for them, for example, in the 33rd minute, the ball was clipped into the box by Ralls and the ball was met by the head of Mark McGuiness, however, the defender’s header flew just wide.
Stoke had the slightly better chances in the first half with a couple for Dwight Gayle, the stand out one being when he was one on one with the keeper but couldn’t find the finish.
The second half told a completely different side of the story as the travelling side became the ones who were knocking on the door. Enda Stevens was being terrorised by the Cardiff winger Josh Bowler as he constantly found himself in pockets of space which threatened the Stoke defence.
Cardiff were incredibly difficult to deal with up front as they had a fair amount of chances coming from outside the box and from close range. The biggest opportunity of the game came to substitute Ryan Wintle as the midfielder powered the ball towards the bottom right corner from the middle of the box, however, Jack Bonham did well to save it and push the ball wide. Full time Stoke 0 Cardiff 0.
Manager Comments
Alex Neil seemed fairly happy with the result as “It was the type of game we would’ve lost last season,” He said: “Yeah, I'm happy with that. I think that's the type of game last year we would have lost. There were so many times last year when we were in that situation when we've maybe had the bulk of the first half, didn't take opportunities, the second half turns a little bit, they're more on top and then you end up losing the game and everybody goes home really disappointed. So it comes back to that statement: if you can’t win, don’t lose. I thought today a point was a fair result. I don't think they deserved to win based on our chances in the first half but I don't think we deserved to win based on our second half.”
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