Leeds cured their away-day blues in the Sky Bet Championship with a polished 3-0 win at Cardiff.
Patrick Bamford and Daniel James scored first-half goals and Georginio Rutter added a late third with Leeds’ control over the 90 minutes almost absolute.
Leeds even had the luxury of missing a 79th-minute penalty as Crysencio Summerville, who had an off-day in front of goal, sent his effort against a post.
It was a welcome victory for Leeds – who remain fourth in the table – after costly league defeats at Sunderland, Preston and West Brom over the past month.
Cardiff entered the contest on the fringes of the play-off race and desperate to stay in the mix over the second half of the season.
But, just as against leaders Leicester in their last home game, the Bluebirds never looked like bridging the gap against opponents playing in the Premier League this time last year.
Cardiff have now won only one of their last six home games and appear in need of a strong January transfer window to revive their fortunes.
Ethan Ampadu swept over an early Summerville corner before the Wales midfielder, deployed at the back on familiar soil due to injuries, played a delightful ball into Bamford’s path.
Bamford took his time, perhaps too much, and fired wide from an angle.
Leeds did not have to wait long to break the deadlock as Summerville found space down the left after 13 minutes.
The Dutchman’s cross did not find its intended target but the ball bobbled back towards Bamford, who prodded home while on the floor for his third goal in as many games.
Leeds had chances to double that advantage as, much to their manager Daniel Farke’s annoyance, Cardiff goalkeeper Jak Alnwick denied Summerville and Bamford.
Cardiff briefly stirred as Kion Etete failed to chip the ball over the head of Illan Meslier with the Leeds goalkeeper out of his penalty area.
Karlan Grant’s drive from distance also lacked composure, but home hopes of some sort of recovery was soon snuffed out.
Glen Kamara dispossessed Manolis Siopis after 31 minutes and drove forward towards the Cardiff box.
Kamara slipped in Summerville and his deflected shot fell to James, who had the easy task of tapping home into an empty net.
Alnwick made another smart from Rutter and Cardiff’s growing frustration was reflected by Perry Ng’s boking for a wild challenge on Summerville.
It was more of the same at the start of the second period as Summerville twice drove wide and James looped a shot onto the Cardiff crossbar.
Alnwick pushed Rutter’s chip over the top and Summerville missed from 12 yards after Mark McGuinness had bundled over Rutter.
But Leeds added a third two minutes from time from a rapid breakaway as Rutter hammered home.
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
Taylor pleased with City's physical test during Hammarby win
Manchester City head coach Gareth Taylor was pleased with how his team stood up to the physical challenge of Hammarby in their 2-0 Champions League victory on Tuesday.
City's win extended their unbeaten start to the season, having won every game in all competitions following a 2-2 draw against Arsenal on opening day.
“Difficult game for us, physical challenge, a physical team in Hammarby. I think they outnumber us a little bit in terms of size, considering when you look at our midfield. But I thought the girls handled it really well," Taylor said after the game
“I thought we dominated the game. In the early parts we were just a little bit off in our final action. We just needed to speed up a little bit in terms of being on the end of it, and we spoke about that at half-time, and we score with Laura getting into that type of position we’d been talking about.
“[The physicality was something] we were prepared for, but dealing with it is a different thing. Having Bunny [Khadija Shaw] and Alanna [Kennedy] on the pitch, two of our more physical players, is really important, particularly for set-plays.
“At 1-0 we were defending a couple of scenarios like that, Yama [Ayaka Yamashita] making a really good save at one point. Then Aoba [Fujino] got the goal that maybe allowed us to change things up a little bit more, get some people off that we’d like to manage.
“I think the girls have dealt with it really well tonight. We expected it, we thought it would be difficult, and they rose to the challenge.”
The victory leaves City top of their Champions League group with a 100% record after three matches, three points above second-placed Barcelona.
Taylor had made changes to City's starting XI, with Lauren Hemp among the trio to drop out from the weekend and she did not feature in the squad. Ahead of their weekend game against Chelsea, who are second in the WSL, Taylor explained the reasoning behind Hemp's absence.
“We’ve just got an issue with Lauren that we just need to analyse a little bit further, that’s all," he said.
“It’s something that potentially happened in the Palace game [on 3 November]. She was able to play in the Tottenham game [last Friday] but wasn’t able to tonight, so we’ll just take a little bit longer to assess and find out more.
“Hopefully [she can play against Chelsea]. There’s an opportunity there, we’ll just have to take a moment tomorrow, have a good conversation and find out where we’re at with the medical staff.”
Campbell gives Sheffield United victory in Steel City derby, Rodriguez strikes late for Burnley
Sheffield United joined leaders Sunderland at the top of the Championship table after a hard-fought 1-0 win against local rivals Sheffield Wednesday.
After a goalless first half, Tyrese Campbell latched onto a pass from Callum O'Hare and slotted past Wednesday goalkeeper James Beadle for the winner five minutes into the second period.
This was the Blades' sixth consecutive clean sheet at Bramall Lane and their fourth straight win home or away, and sees them go level with Sunderland on 31 points from 15 matches.
Meanwhile, Burnley are four points behind the top two after they snatched a last-gasp 1-0 victory against visitors Swansea City.
Jay Rodriguez's stoppage-time penalty secured the points for the Clarets at Turf Moor, ending their four-match winless run and climbing to fourth in the table.
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