Cardiff City boss pinpoints exactly where Portsmouth caused side 'problems' despite 2-0 defeat

Portsmouth suffered another defeat last night, falling to a 2-0 loss against a resurgent Cardiff City outfit, as Pompey’s difficult start to the 2024/25 season continues.

Regan Poole turned the ball into his own net within the first five minutes of the outing - Callum Robinson followed this up with another goal to give the home team an early 2-0 lead.

Cardiff spurned several chances to widen the scores before half time. In the second half of the match, Portsmouth grew into the game and began to put the Bluebirds under pressure, never threaten to stage a serious comeback at any point.

Speaking to the media, Riza said [via Wales Online]: “I thought the start was excellent. I thought we could have had a couple more goals as well. The second half we lost a bit of control in the game and I thought we needed that third goal.

“That's something to work on, trying to control the game to try and not allow the opposition to cause us the problems they did. They pressed quite hard and we got quite tired, as was to be expected after Saturday.

“We haven't conceded a goal, which is a positive, but we needed more control in the second half. The first 25, 30 minutes, the boys were excellent but they came off it a little bit. They tried things they didn't need to, we need to be better in those moments.

“I want them to take risks, that's part of our game, breaking lines, forward passes. Rubin (Colwill) made some great dummies that allowed balls to go past the defence. But sometimes when the game is changing, you need to have a touch, or take a couple of touches, especially when you're tired and losing energy and strength, you need to recognise those moments better.”