Report | Cardiff City 3 Swansea City 0
Swansea City suffered defeat in the south Wales derby at the Cardiff City Stadium.
After a goalless first half, two goals in six minutes from Callum Robinson put the home side in control, before Dimitrios Goutas added a third with a header.
It was a bitterly disappointing result for the Swans who were unable to build on a start where they had control of proceedings but were unable to hurt their hosts.
Swansea centre-halves Ben Cabango and Harry Darling had been fit enough to return from injury in defence, while Lawrence Vigouroux, Joe Allen and Liam Cullen also came into the visitors’ line-up.
Cardiff, meanwhile, had brought captain Joe Ralls, Ollie Tanner and Robinson into their line-up, with new signing Yousef Salech on the bench.
Swansea enjoyed plenty of the ball in the opening exchanges, with Cardiff happy to initially sit off the visitors.
The first decent chance fell to Gonçalo Franco, the Portuguese was the first to reach a loose ball after a Swansea free-kick, but volleyed narrowly over as he swiveled to get a strike away.
Vigouroux raced out to gather when Cian Ashford looked to go beyond Josh Tymon but took far too heavy a touch when trying to bring in a crossfield pass from Ralls.
The first 20 minutes elapsed without either keeper being tested and Cardiff were soon forced into a change when Callum O’Dowda felt his hamstring and was replaced by Joel Bagan.
Alex Robertson drove an effort well wide from the edge of the area as the half-hour approached, and Calum Chambers lashed an effort over and then stung Vigouroux’s gloves with a volley from a tight angle as Swansea struggled to clear a pair of set-pieces in quick succession.
Robinson also shot straight into the gloves of the Swansea keeper with the visitors incredulous that referee James Bell opted to play on despite a clear foul on Matt Grimes in the build-up.
The half ended goalless but the home side opened the scoring less than 80 seconds into the second half when Robinson was able to bring down a Tanner cross and volley across Vigouroux into the far corner of the net.
And things got worse for the Swans when a loose backpass allowed Robinson in on goal again, and he steered a low effort into the bottom corner.
Žan Vipotnik and Florian Bianchini were summoned from the Swansea bench in place of Allen and Jisung Eom, and the Frenchman got into space behind the Cardiff defence, only to hit a weak cross into the arms of Jak Alnwick.
Josh Key did some important cleaning up work to cut out a Tanner cross, and Swansea had a let-off when the Cardiff winger was unable to pick out an unmarked Ashford from a Cardiff counter-attack.
Tanner had a shot blocked out for a corner and, from the resulting set-piece, Goutas effectively put the game to bed with a powerful header that found the net off the underside of the crossbar.
Key headed narrowly wide at the other end, with Vipotnik unable to turn in as he arrived at the far post but there was no way back for the Swans.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux, Josh Key (Kyle Naughton 76), Ben Cabango, Harry Darling, Josh Tymon; Matt Grimes (captain), Gonçalo Franco, Joe Allen (Žan Vipotnik 55); Ronald (Sam Parker 84), Jisung Eom (Florian Bianchini 55), Liam Cullen.
Unused Substitutes: Jon McLaughlin, Jay Fulton, Cyrus Christie, Myles Peart-Harris, Dan Watts.
Cardiff City: Jak Alnwick, Dimitrios Goutas, Jesper Daland, Joe Ralls (captain), Callum O'Dowda (Joel Bagan 24), Calum Chambers (Manolis Siopis 76), Alex Robertson (Rubin Colwill 76), Ollie Tanner (Yakou Meite 83), Andy Rinomhota, Cian Ashford, Callum Robinson (Yousef Salech 84).
Unused Substitutes: Ethan Horvath, Will Fish, Chris Willock, Perry Ng.
Referee: James Bell
Attendance: 26,536