Isaiah Jones and Emmanuel Latte Lath struck second-half goals to earn Middlesbrough a third Sky Bet Championship triumph in a row and end Cardiff’s winning run.
The Bluebirds had won four in a row before this trip to Teesside but Jones’ first league goal of the season in the 56th minute did the damage before Latte Lath sealed a 2-0 victory with six minutes left.
It had been an otherwise largely uneventful evening at the Riverside Stadium with neither side really dominating proceedings in an attacking sense until those goals.
There was a very tentative start. Neither side wanted to press the other, which meant both defences spent a lot of the time knocking the ball around to each other.
That frustrated the fans initially, and the nearest a player came to threatening in the first 25 minutes was when Ollie Tanner was played into space down Boro’s left side.
Tanner, one of two Cardiff changes to the team that beat Rotherham, burst into the box before his low delivery was spilled in the six-yard box by goalkeeper Seny Dieng and Middlesbrough cleared.
Dieng was also in the right place to hold a routine Ryan Wintle header from 12 yards soon after.
When Sam Greenwood, one of four changes for the hosts from the side that won at Watford, was handed possession deep inside the Cardiff half, the crowd suddenly had something to shout about.
Greenwood, on loan from Leeds, attacked his marker at pace before firing a rasping drive at goal for Jak Alnwick to turn over for a corner after 26 minutes.
That did at least breathe life into the first half. Dieng did brilliantly to make a save from Karlan Grant when the Cardiff winger tried to slot past him after he had been put through.
Cardiff went close soon after the restart too. Tanner curled against the bar from an angle after turning one way and then the other inside the box.
But Middlesbrough went ahead when Lukas Engel, who has had a slow start since signing from Danish side Silkeborg in the summer, drilled a low cross inside the six-yard box for Jones to slide in and finish.
That prompted Cardiff to push on more. Striker Kion Etete was disappointed not to hit the target with a header from a corner.
But in the 84th minute Marcus Forss’ flick on halfway was perfect for Middlesbrough to counter.
Latte Lath’s speed got him away from his marker and even though Mahlon Romeo caught him, the Ivorian’s turn created the opening to apply the cool finish for his second league goal of the season.
After that Dael Fry and Forss went close to adding to Middlesbrough’s lead but Michael Carrick’s men had already done enough to seal the points.
Israel 1-0 Belgium: Shua late show proves decisive
Relegated Israel stunned Belgium 1-0 in their final Nations League game as Yarden Shua's late goal earned them their first win in the competition this season.
The Red Devils, who were without a number of key players for the tie in Hungary, were masters of their own downfall as they gifted Israel the winner with four minutes left on the clock.
In a cagey first half, Eli Dasa breached Belgium's backline 24 minutes in and beat Koen Casteels with a crisp low effort, only to be denied by the foot of the far post.
Casteels was alert just before the break, getting down low to push Dor Peretz's low drive away from the bottom corner.
Domenico Tedesco's half-time team talk looked to have buoyed his side as they upped the pressure, with Lois Openda hitting the side netting before Johan Bakayoko forced a fingertip save out of Daniel Peretz just after the hour.
However, in their rush to find a winner, Belgium were caught playing out from the back. Dor Peretz latched onto Matte Smets' loose backpass, and though he was bundled over in the box, Shua coolly picked out the bottom corner.
Israel finish bottom of Group A2 and are automatically relegated to League B, while Belgium sit above them due to a superior goal difference in their head-to-head record –they now have a relegation play-off to overcome.
Data Debrief: Tough times for Tedesco
It has been a Nations League campaign to forget for Belgium, who managed just one win and finished with a whimper as they went winless in their final four matches (D1 L3).
They just edged the shot count in Budapest, having 12 attempts to Israel's 10, but without the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne to call on, they lacked a clinical edge.
While Belgium struggled in attack, their defensive struggles will also be a worry for Tedesco. They failed to win any of the four games in which they fell behind in the group, earning just one point from a losing position.
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
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