Match Reports

Cardiff City 1-1 Albion

An image of Daryl Dike and his Albion teammates

Albion drew 1-1 with Cardiff City in the Sky Bet Championship on Wednesday evening.

The Baggies were ahead at the break thanks to Daryl Dike’s brilliant finish, but had to settle for a point following Sory Kaba’s second-half leveller.

Carlos Corberán’s side now have two-and-a-half weeks without a fixture, returning to The Hawthorns for Millwall’s visit on April 1.

The boss switched to a back-three in South Wales while making two changes to his line-up, swapping Darnell Furlong and Adam Reach for Semi Ajayi and Marc Albrighton.

And, despite a couple of long-range strikes from Cardiff in the opening 15 minutes, it was Albion who grabbed an early lead – a dangerous Jed Wallace cross excellently volleyed home by Dike.

The hosts threatened an equaliser midway through the half when Isaak Davies diverted one wide at the back-post, though the Baggies also had an opportunity via John Swift’s dipping, narrowly off-target free-kick.

Albion took their advantage into the interval and very nearly extended it straight after the game restarted, Wallace forcing a good save out of Ryan Allsop with a powerful effort.

But Cardiff found an equaliser on 65 minutes, substitute Kaba squeezing a header past Josh Griffiths for 1-1.

Adam Reach thought he’d responded straight away, converting a rebound inside the area, yet he looked across to see the assistant referee’s flag raised.

Corberán turned to the bench and gave Tom Rogic and Brandon Thomas-Asante the final 20 minutes.

The teams exchanged chances as time ticked down – Griffiths superbly stopping Jaden Philogene’s venomous shot before Wallace, in on goal, poked agonisingly wide.

However, neither could find a winner and the spoils were shared at the Cardiff City Stadium.

Albion: Griffiths; Ajayi, O’Shea, Pieters (Furlong 84); Albrighton (Thomas-Asante 70), Molumby (Gardner-Hickman 84), Yokuslu, Townsend; Wallace, Dike (Reach 58), Swift (Rogic 70).

Substitutes: Button, Livermore.