Cardiff City 0-2 Sheffield United: Kieffer Moore Nets Spectacular Brace Against Former Club | OneFootball

Sheffield United ensured they will remain top of the Championship on Christmas Day with a simple 2-0 away victory against Cardiff City.

The Blades dominated the game from start to finish but it wasn’t until the second half when they opened the scoring. A spectacular chest and volley into the top right corner from Kieffer Moore saw United take the lead in the 65th minute. It didn’t take long for the Blades to double their lead, though that man Kieffer Moore once again. This time, picking the ball up outside the penalty area he smashed a shot towards the near post and it flew past the goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.

Chris Wilder made one change for the trip to South Wales as Welshman Kieffer Moore replaced Ryan Oné up top. Vinicius Souza and Anel Ahmedhodzic were not involved in the squad despite the Blades boss’ comments in his pre-match press conference.

Lineups

Cardiff: Alnwick, Siopis, Goutas, Daland (Ashford 83), Chambers, Willock (Colwill 48), Robertson (Kpakio 83), Méïté (Kanga 83), El Ghazi (Robinson 72), Bagan, Rinomhota.

Unused: Horvath, Fish, Kanga, Davies, Perrett.

Blades: Cooper, Gilchrist (Baptiste 84), Souttar, Hamer, Moore (McCallum 74) O’Hare, Rak-Sakyi (Brewster 62), Burrows, Robinson (Norrington-Davies 84), T. Davies, Peck.

Unused: A. Davies, Marsh, Brooks, Oné, Blacker.

First Half

Sheffield United had almost all of the possession in the first 15 minutes but it was Cardiff City who registered the first shot on target, as Siopis couldn’t connect cleanly with a first-time volleyed attempt from the edge of the box. Almost a minute later, Hamer had a volley from the edge of the box himself, but his awkward swing sailed over the bar.

Six minutes later, the Dutch midfielder was involved in things once again. After some neat and quick passing between him and Davies from a short corner on the left, Hamer smacked a low shot inches wide of the far right post.

The Bluebirds’ second shot of the game was quite audacious as powerful Ivory Coast striker Meite attempted a shot from the halfway line – the result was as you’d expect.

CARDIFF, WALES – DECEMBER 21: Kieffer Moore of Sheffield United scores the opening goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between Cardiff City FC and Sheffield United FC at Cardiff City Stadium on December 21, 2024 in Cardiff, Wales. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

Second Half

Wilder likely told his team at half-time that they needed to up the tempo in the second half, and they did exactly that. The Blades continued to dominate possession but they were moving it a lot quicker in the final third and the first chance of the second half fell to Davies, who attempted to place his effort into the bottom left corner.

A few minutes later Davies probably should’ve done better with his close range header when he headed it straight into the keeper’s hands.

Cardiff were posing very little threat to the Blades until the hour mark when El Ghazi came close to scoring a wonderful looping strike from around 30 yards out, which had Cooper scampering in goal and was thankful to see it miss the target.

The league leaders had something special up their sleeve themselves and Kieffer Moore delivered that on 65 minutes when he chested down an Alfie Gilchrist cross, holding off his man he spun on the spot and smashed his left-footed volley into the top corner of the net, leaving the goalkeeper no chance.

Moore wasn’t finished yet as he came back to haunt his former club scoring not just one special goal, but two. This time, Kieffer Moore latched onto a Tom Davies tackle/pass and he drilled his shot into the bottom left corner from outside the box.

The Blades almost added a third when some hard work from United’s press eventually led to O’Hare getting a loose ball on the far left side of the box and he tried to curl one into the far right corner but the keeper parried it clear.

Sheffield United claimed another three points which maintains their three point gap at the top of the Championship.