Thought it was Sunday! Cardiff City's pre-season friendly with La Liga outfit Real Betis will be shown live on S4C. The match - which takes place at Cardiff City Stadium on Saturday, August 4 - will be the final one of Cardiff's hectic pre-season as Neil Warnock's men prepare for life in the Premier League following their stunning promotion last term. In addition to being shown live on television, S4C have revealed that the game - which gets underway at 5:15pm - will also be available to watch on demand at s4c.cymru and BBC iPlayer. It has also been confirmed that English match commentary will be available on the game via the red button.
Real Betis beat Bournemouth 2.0 in a friendly last night. If they field the same side against us tonight they are either pushing for peak fitness at the season start or have a very small squad. I suspect we will see a totally different starting 11.
Which former Cardiff City player, now a manager has just seen his side go 1-0 down....no cheating pals?
Missed the first 1/2 hour. Enjoying the game though. Some nice link up play, and something we've lacked for a while, pace. Still look short a player or two short in centre mid though. Like the look of Murphy and seems to work well with Hoilett.
Excellent game against a strong side. Thought Manga played well for a change...not sure what Damour offers although he did look slimmer and fitter. Wonder Goal from Murphy!
Central midfield Prem teams will cut us apart if we field that formation. Today showed City need some quality, creativity, pace and ability to hold in central midfield more than anything. Murphy is quality mind
Three cheers for the Betis fans though. Only about fifty of 'em, but they were superb...totally outsang and outclapped the Bluebirds fans.
We were 2nd best for most of the match, chasing shadows at times. Bamba not a Prem mid-fielder, Ralls need some help in there. Murphy could be our best buy. he showed some quality.
Sorry, I don't get this "good game" theme. It looked like the same sort of game as Man City in the Cup last season - to use Warnock's words back then - chasing shadows. They out-passed us, they were head and shoulders better on the ball. Apart from the obvious class of Murphy and the pace of Reid, we struggled going forward. If it wasn't for Manga who had a brilliant game, we'd have lost that by a hatfull. Let's be honest, our midfield is a shambles. We are desperate for a genuine midfield controller because there's no way Bamba can fill that spot. It looked as if we recognised that during the game as well. Why oh why does Etheridge have to lump the ball up the field at every opportunity when we've got shorties Reid and Hoilett to jump for it. I'll tell you why - we can't play it through midfield to save our lives. The substitutions made no difference either. Zohore had the touch of a carthorse and Mendez-Laing lacked confidence - he didn't take on his fullback once, preferring to pass inside every time. Peltier is no Premier fullback either. For all his commitment, he has little pace and offers nothing going forward on the right - all the action came down the left with Bennett and Murphy. Don't want to sound defeatist before a ball is kicked in anger, but on last night's showing - and we'll play plenty of teams as good and better than Betis this season - we are going to struggle unless we invest heavily in midfield and a Prem quality right side defender, and that's apart from someone to stick the ball in the net regularly.
I think we are woefully short of quality in midfield. Defence was ok , except for some comical defending for the Betis goals. I like the look of Murphy and Reid , plenty of movement and nice link up play between them, which hopefully will only get better. It's going to be a crazy few days until transfer deadline day, to get the quality we want and need , is going to cost us. I think we need at least two CM's , Ralls , Gunner and Demour, are not enough . I have no idea , who we can bring in , on the budget we are supposed to be working too . Over to you Mr Warnock , the next few days are going to define our season , that's how important our next signings are .
I think a poor transfer window will come back to bite us. Squad isn't good enough right now. Did we really not have a Plan B signing for the midfield?