Blackburn Rovers Vs Bristol City: Robins fight back to win 2-1 at Ewood Park

In a comeback that decided a tight evening at Ewood Park, Bristol City beat Blackburn Rovers 2-1 as Emil Riis and Scott Twine turned the game on its head in the first half. The blackburn rovers vs bristol city contest mattered because it handed Michael O'Neill his first defeat as Blackburn manager and gave City a result described as “very, very important” at this stage of the season.

Blackburn Rovers Vs Bristol City: how the goals came

Blackburn opened the scoring after six minutes when Ryoya Morishita beat Rob Atkinson for pace and picked out Yuki Ōhashi, who rifled the ball into the net. Ōhashi’s strike was his second in two games. City hit back in the 17th minute when Cameron Pring’s cross deflected kindly for Emil Riis, who controlled the ball on his thigh and volleyed into the far corner to level. Just after the half-hour, Scott Twine met Riis’s cutback with a sublime volley for what Sky’s match report described as a 31st-minute winner; that goal was Twine’s ninth of the season and put the visitors 2-1 up at half-time.

Goalkeeping and big saves from both sides

Both goalkeepers were busy. Baláz Tóth made a brilliant one-on-one save early on and produced another top stop in the 75th minute to keep out Tomi Horvat’s free-kick. Radek Vítek also produced several crucial interventions for City: he denied Dion De Neve from point-blank range, kept out a late Moussa Baradji effort at the death, and made other important saves as Blackburn poured forward. Baláz Tóth’s early diving saves and Vítek’s late blocks were repeatedly highlighted as decisive.

Substitutions, starting XI and tactical changes

Gerhard Struber made five changes to his starting side, bringing in Emil Riis, Scott Twine, Cam Pring, Mark Sykes and Sam Morsy. The matchday starting XI was listed as: Vítek; Tanner, Eile, Atkinson (Borges 45’); Sykes Morsy (Randell 58’), Knight (C), Pring; Horvat (Bird 90+2’), Twine (Burgzorg 58’); Riis (Armstrong 58’). During the game, Max Bird came on for Tomi Horvat and Oladapo Afolayan replaced Kristi Montgomery for Blackburn. Those changes shaped the second-half pattern and helped City defend their advantage.

Blackburn pressure, missed chances and added time drama

Blackburn mounted relentless second-half pressure but struggled to find a clinical edge. The hosts had 16 attempts, six on target. Mathias Jørgensen met a Ryan Alebiosu cross and headed wide; Alebiosu’s pace caused problems at times and Ohashi wasted a later chance, smashing a shot into the ground and wide from the centre of the box. Substitute Andri Gudjohnsen failed to capitalise on a three-on-two break, George Tanner made a firm tackle to deny Gudjohnsen an almost certain opportunity, and Dion De Neve saw a goal-line block deny him. As the fourth official announced five minutes of added time, Blackburn pushed for a last chance, but Vítek kept out Moussa Baradji’s close-range effort in the fifth minute of stoppage time to preserve City’s lead.

Reaction, context and what comes next

Commentary from former Sunderland and Bristol City midfielder Gary Owers praised City’s first-half quality and noted how Blackburn improved after half-time, saying City had to battle and scrap for three points and that the result was “very, very important” at this stage of the season. Michael O'Neill suffered his first defeat as Blackburn manager after winning his first two matches of the job-share against QPR and Preston; he reflected that he had been in charge nine days and that the side had six points from nine. The win ended a two-game run without victory for City, and the Robins turn their attention to Watford at home on Friday, February 27th at 8pm ET.

We used AI to assist with reporting on this page. In this instance, AI helped to summarise radio journalists' commentary of this match. All posts were checked by a journalist before publishing.