Cardiff City 0-2 Brighton & Hove Albion: Seagulls into Carabao Cup third round
- Published
- comments
Brighton had only won one of their previous eight meetings against Cardiff
Brighton maintained their impressive start to the season to advance in the Carabao Cup and inflict Cardiff's first loss of the campaign.
Jakub Moder's first Albion goal gave Graham Potter's men an early lead at Cardiff City Stadium.
Andi Zeqiri also opened his account for the Seagulls in the second half as a much changed Brighton overcame the Championship side.
Cardiff had chances with a James Collins header hitting the crossbar.
Brighton, enjoying their best ever start to a top-flight season after two wins from two, made 11 changes to the side that started in the win over Watford.
Cardiff made eight changes with Sam Bowen and Tavio D'Almeida handed competitive debuts and Mick McCarthy's side made a positive start to the game.
But it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play after nine minutes as Enock Mwepu's finely threaded through ball from Brighton's half found the advancing Moder, and the Poland international coolly slotted past Alex Smithies.
Cardiff's response saw Perry Ng's shot deflected over while Aden Flint, Cardiff's top scorer with four goals, headed wide from a corner while Zeqiri could have doubled Brighton's lead but he fired wide.
The home side were dealt a blow just after the half-hour mark when skipper Sean Morrison was forced to leave the field and replaced by teenager Oliver Denham, who came on to make his debut.
Collins had a half chance for Cardiff two minutes after the break but his header was saved by Jason Steele but as Cardiff pushed for a way back into the game, debutant Moises Caicedo fed Zeqiri, who slotted into the bottom left hand corner of the net.
Collins' header from Josh Murphy's cross struck the crossbar late on but Brighton had by then done enough to seal victory.
Cardiff City manager Mick McCarthy said:
"Beaten by a better team. We started well in the first half, had a really good chance from pressing and pressed really well. We were in good possession, gave the ball away and it ends up in the back of the net.
"They're a good side and they were considerably better than us in the first half after that. In the second half I thought the lads rallied and were great and again we've given the ball away and it ends up in the back of our net.
"You can't knock the spirit, we kept going and kept going but beaten by the better team."
Brighton manager Graham Potter said:
"You don't really know for sure how it's going to go against a Championship team. It's a different type of test, but the important thing with all of them is that the character is really strong.
"They are open-minded and want to try and do their best. Our job is to develop the right pathways into the Premier League because the level is so high. The work that the academy do developing that is fantastic."
"We're really pleased where we are at the moment. We should be really proud as a club that we've got an academy like we have and we want to try and help that. The guys earned that win, deservedly I thought and could have added to the scoreline."
Parents We've Got You! Challenges to keep your child or teenager busy this summer
Which food has the same carbon footprint as five miles in an SUV? The carbon cost of what we eat
