Blackburn Rovers vs Charlton Athletic; Sky Bet Championship
Blackburn Rovers vs Charlton Athletic. Sky Bet Championship.
Ewood ParkAttendance11,367.
Blackburn Rovers 2
- M Baradji (37th minute, 77th minute)
Charlton Athletic 2
- C Kelman (28th minute, 34th minute pen)
Blackburn 2-2 Charlton: Moussa Baradji scores twice in comeback point for Rovers
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic at Ewood Park on Sunday; Moussa Baradji scores twice as Valerien Ismael's side hit back for a vital point.
Sunday 4 January 2026 19:34, UK
Moussa Baradji scored his first Blackburn goals as his brace helped Rovers hit back from two down to snatch an entertaining 2-2 draw with fellow strugglers Charlton.
Winless in four games and without a goal in three, Blackburn looked set to slip deeper into relegation trouble when a quickfire Charlie Kelman double, a close-range volley in the 28th minute and a controversial penalty six minutes later, put the visitors in command.
But the beleaguered hosts displayed plenty of character and on-loan midfielder Baradji halved the deficit before half-time with a thumping header before slotting home a deserved equaliser 13 minutes from time.
The point moved Valerien Ismael's side four clear of the drop zone. Charlton are winless in four but remain a place and a point above Rovers.
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A cagey opening was low on quality, with the only moments of note a wayward Todd Cantwell shot for the hosts and speculative Tyreece Campbell effort at the other end.
The first moment of quality resulted in the opening goal as James Bree's whipped cross from the right was met by Miles Leaburn and, although his header crashed off the crossbar, Kelman was alert to volley the rebound home.
Things went from bad to worse for Rovers when referee David Webb pointed to the spot after Lloyd Jones went down in the area, even though Harry Pickering pulled out of his challenge.
Kelman stepped up and slotted his penalty into the bottom left corner for his fourth goal of the season.
Rovers responded almost immediately when Cantwell stood up a cross from the right that picked ou the onrushing Baradji, who leapt above the defence to bury his leader beyond Thomas Kaminski.
Blackburn made a positive start to the second period but were indebted to Lewis Miller's goal-saving intervention in the 54th minute when he diverted Bree's superb low cross behind, with Campbell lurking to tap in.
A moment of inspiration from full debutant Tom Atcheson almost yielded an equaliser as he nipped the ball away from a Charlton defender and set himself up for a volley that forced a sprawling save from Kaminski.
The game felt more frantic as Rovers desperately searched an equaliser.
Substitute Dion De Neve crossed for Miller at the back post, but his header was comfortable for Kaminski, while at the other end the danger remained and only a sensational last-ditch challenge from Sean McLoughlin prevented Leaburn from scoring a third in the 71st minute.
Rovers deservedly pulled level with 13 minutes remaining and once again a perfectly-timed Baradji run did the damage as he arrived in the area to meet Miller's low centre and fire beyond Kaminski.
The managers
Blackburn's Valerien Ismael:
"We knew that we've got a special player with him. That's why we took the risk in the summer because we know that he's worth it.
"We're just pleased that he was able, since he came back, to have 100 per cent ability in training sessions and in games.
"So we build him up throughout the games for one month, it works well and now you see clearly it's going up and up.
"I'm very pleased now he has time to recover properly. It will be good for him now to have a breather before the next Championship game.
"It's exactly what we knew from him. His physicality, his capability to play box to box and he's able to score goals and today he got the breakthrough."
Charlton's Nathan Jones:
"Wasn't a good game. No team had any control, but after taking a 2-0 lead we expect to win that game.
"The goal just before half-time lifted them. Poor from us, turned the ball over, allowed them to get to the byline, clip a ball in, we don't pick up. There's only one in the box, we have three and he gets a free header and scores and that's frustrating.
"Second goal is really frustrating. We lose Miles (Leaburn), he has to come off. We can't make a sub so we're down to 10 men, we have the ball in the corner, we clip it into their keeper's hands.
"They go up the other end and score from a cutback. These are things we normally defend really well, stuff we work on. So it's really, really frustrating.
"I'm really disappointed because the goals were really, really poor."
