BLUEBIRDS PLAYED BY THE RALLS

DEFENDER Greg Cunningham insists Cardiff tried to play firm but fair against Manchester City.

Bluebirds midfielder Joe Ralls was fortunate to avoid a red card for a late, high challenge on man-of-thematch Ilkay Gundogan.

It was the second successive meeting between the clubs featuring a controversial challenge.

Pep Guardiola (below) called for more protection after an awful tackle by Cardiff’s Joe Bennett on Leroy Sane in the 2-0 FA Cup win in January that kept the Germany winger out for a fortnight.

Cunningham said: “There was a bit of talk about that leading up to the game. But it’s a game of football, there’s going to be tackles going in and with the pace of the game you know some of them are going to be ill-timed.

“We weren’t going easy. We were trying to get in their faces as much as we could to try to upset them.

“It felt that we started really well on that front and they just turned the screw.”

Former Etihad trainee Cunningham, a £4million signing by Neil Warnock (above) from Preston, believes the hosts felt the response to Manchester City’s Champions League loss to Lyon in midweek.

Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva and Gundogan scored in the first half and sub Riyad Mahrez grabbed two.

Cunningham added: “There was always going to be a backlash, they put out a strong team and are world-class opposition.

“We frustrated them for half an hour but when they scored it was ‘bang, bang’.

“We have to dust ourselves down and look at Burnley next.”