Pompey earned their first victory of the season on home soil thanks to goals from Conor Shaughnessy and Marko Milovanović.
Shaughnessy nodded home his first of the season in the first half before Marezi fired in his first Blues goal from open play in the second.
The second three points of the 2026/27 season take Portsmouth up to 13th in the Championship table on 6 points, after matchday five of the campaign.
John Mousinho made three changes to the side that was defeated 2-0 by Derby County in midweek.
Jayden Meghoma and Tyrese Shade came in for their Blues debuts on the left side of the Pompey line-up, whilst Rocco Robert Shein came in for Ebou Adams in the middle of the park.
Before kick-off, over 20,000 Pompey supporters paid their respects to club legend Alan Knight, with a minute of silence being held to remember Knightsie for his over 50 years of service to the football club both as a goalkeeper and key figure off the pitch.
It was the visitors who had the best chance inside the opening stages of the afternoon, as Krystian Bielik was left unmarked at the back post, but his header from Joel Bagan’s free-kick did not cause Daniel Bielica too many problems.
Down the other end, Shade almost got his first goal just four days after joining the club on deadline day, but the Blues’ new number 17 could not quite smash home a Cardiff open goal, as Nathan Trott just got a glove to the ball in time.
Shade and Meghoma posed plenty of threats down left-flank, giving Ollie Tanner and Perry Ng a lot of work to do, with Shade pulling the ball back across goal to Abu Kamara, whose effort was deflected away.
Mousinho’s side then broke the deadlock just past the half-hour mark, when Shaughnessy was free to head home Shade’s expertly taken long throw, to make it 1-0.
HALF-TIME: Portsmouth 1-0 Cardiff City
Pompey quickly doubled their lead early on in the second-half on 52 minutes, when Marezi was in the right place, at the right time, to slice in Adrian Segečić’s ball across goal, as the Serbian striker placed the ball past Trott to make it 2-0.
Marezi then thought he had scored his third Pompey goal and second of the afternoon, when he headed in Meghoma’s cross, but the flag was up for offside.
Kamara then came so close to opening his account for the season when he dazzled his way through on goal, before finessing a long-range effort, but the crossbar got in the way of what could have been a first in a Pompey shirt in over two years for Abu.
Cardiff did force Pompey to put themselves behind the ball on plenty of occasions; however, with the Blues' backline and Bielica having to keep out efforts from the likes of Jack Moylan, which they did, to earn a clean sheet that Knightsie would have been very proud of.
FULL-TIME: Portsmouth 2-0 Cardiff City
Portsmouth: 31. Bielica (GK), 24. Devlin, 2. Arthur, 6. Shaughnessy, 16. Meghoma (22. Swanson), 7. Pack (C) (37. Mohammed), 19. Shein (38. Adams), 11. Kamara, 10. Segečić, 17. Shade (25. Kavuma-McQueen), 29. Marezi (9. Bishop) (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 1. Schmid (GK), 5. Poole, 27. Bailey, 32. Kenny
Goals: Shaughnessy 31’, Marezi 52’
Head coach: John Mousinho
Cardiff City: 1. Trott (GK), 38. Ng (C), 5. Bielik (23. Scanlon), 4. Osho, 3. Bagan, 18. Robertson, 14. Turnbull (27. J. Colwill), 8. Moylan, 11. Tanner (45. Ashford), 16. Willock (10. R. Colwill), 9. Salech (Formation: 4-2-3-1)
Unused subs: 30. Tyrer (GK), 41. Turner (GK), 33. Tankiewicz, 44. Kpakio, 47. Robinson
Bookings: Bielik 9’, Tanner 60’, Robertson 86’, Salech 90+3’
Head coach: Brian Barry-Murphy
Referee: Benjamin Speedie
Venue: Fratton Park
Attendance: 20,469 (including 2,184 away fans)
Jake Smith was joined in the press box at Fratton Park today by Graham Butterworth and Mark Kelly to analyse the match. You can now listen back to the Pompey Live: Extra-Time podcast.
Join Jake Smith and 2 more Blues fans on Monday (September 7th) evening from 6pm when The Football Hour returns with further reaction to this victory for the Blues.
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