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Cardiff produced one of their finest European performances in recent years as they swept aside French giants Racing 92 32-13 at the Arms Park to move to the cusp of the Challenge Cup knockout stages.
The Welsh club trailed 13-12 at the interval but scored 19 unanswered points in a dominant second-half performance.
Tries from Tom Bowen, Rory Thornton, Keiron Assiratti and player of the match Ben Thomas, along with a combined 12 points from the boots of Callum Sheedy and Jacob Beetham, got Cardiff over the line.
Racing crossed the line twice in the first half courtesy of Selestino Ravutaumada and Geronimo Prisciantelli.
Cardiff are all but guaranteed qualification for the knockout stages with a trip to Exeter Chiefs to come next week.
There was drama right from the get-go as Cardiff No 8 Alun Lawrence spilled the kick-off only to be hit directly in the head by Racing wing Ravutaumada.
After going to the TMO the Fijian wing got sent to the sin bin but Racing drew first blood with three points from the boot of Antoine Gibert.
Cardiff quickly got a foothold in the game and a beautiful chip ahead from Sheedy got taken by Bowen who showed tremendous pace to skin Prisciantelli to score at the corner.
Sheedy smashed over the conversion from out wide but Racing’s attack clicked into gear.
The French club looked extremely dangerous with ball in hand and after getting over the gain-line some nice handling from Gibert and Prisciantelli released Hacjivah Dayimani who drew in Jacob Beetham to put Ravutaumada over.
Cardiff squandered a few chances, with one materialising after a sensational 50/22 from loosehead prop Rhys Barratt.
The hosts had a lineout in the Racing 22 but a sloppy knock-on from Taine Basham let the French club off the hook.
Leo Carbonneau was the architect of Racing’s second try as he took a penalty quickly before offloading to Ravutaumada.
The Racing wing brushed off some weak Cardiff tackling before getting brought down just metres short of the line but there was no stopping the visitors as Prisciantelli powered over from short range.
But Cardiff narrowed the deficit at the stroke of half-time as Thornton powered over from short-range, meaning the hosts trailed 13-12 at the interval.
Cardiff made a strong start to the second half with a lovely pass from Ben Thomas releasing Iwan Stephens out wide.
The diminutive Stephens found Beetham on the edge with the Wales international racing up the touchline.
Beetham could not quite get his offload away but Cardiff had won a penalty.
Liam Belcher took it quickly after a period of pressure Assiratti smashed his way over the line for a try which Sheedy converted.
Cardiff were now in complete control and Sheedy put over a further three points to make it a two-score game.
The hosts sealed the victory when Cornel Smith offloaded from the point of contact to give Thomas a clean run to the line.
Cardiff: Beetham; Stephens, Smit, B Thomas, Bowen; Sheedy, A Davies; Barratt, Belcher (capt), Assiratti, Nott, Thornton, Mann, Basham, Lawrence.
Replacements: D Hughes, Domachowski, Sebastian, McNally, Botham, Bevan, Jennings, Millard.
Racing 92: Prisciantelli; Ravutaumada, James, Ashvetia, Donguy; Gibert, Carbonneau; Njocke, Leota, Bamba, Kpoku, Joseph (capt), Baudonne, Zinzen, Dayimani.
Replacements: Tarrit, Julien, Kharaishvili, Taofifenua, Albuisson, Tagitagivalu, Labarbe, Espeut.
