40 min: ... Villa nearly score on the break! Roberts is dispossessed by Watkins, who tears upfield and eventually sends a bobbling shot into the arms of Meslier. Such a dangerous counter, but having done all the hard work to get there, Watkins should have done better.
39 min: Raphinha, ever the threat, wins a corner down the left and takes it himself. He pulls it back for Costa, surprising everyone in the crowded box. Costa fires it goalwards, but there are too many players in the road, and his shot deflects out for a second corner. From which ...
37 min: Nakamba is clipped from behind by Roberts, who is perhaps fortunate not to go into the book. The game’s been played in a good spirit, though, and so the referee just delivers a quiet lecture.
35 min: Raphinha whips in low from the left. Martinez handles perfectly, the ball having just evaded Bamford at the near post. Leeds are certainly knocking.
34 min: Raphinha buzzes in from the left and finds Ayling in the centre with a low diagonal pass. Ayling spins and tries to float a chip over Martinez and into the top left from 25 yards. It’s always going wide, but full marks for artistic ambition.
33 min: Some space down the right this time. Klich has time as well, and three team-mates lined up along the six-yard box to aim for. His high hoick evades everyone, a severe disappointment. Throw for Villa.
31 min: Dallas and Raphinha again launch a two-man sortie down the left. Again the communication goes awry. But Villa were backpedalling in panic there. Leeds are getting plenty of joy down this flank.
30 min: Leeds play long. Mings heads back towards Martinez, who claims on the edge of his box under intense pressure from Bamford. The home side are pushing hard.
28 min: Bamford sweeps a pass wide left for Raphinha, who twinkles his way into the box before slipping a pass towards Dallas on the outside. Dallas hasn’t read his intentions, and that’s a goal kick. After Villa’s confident start, Leeds are beginning to get a foothold in this game.
27 min: Ayling whips a low cross in from the right. Bamford takes a fresh-air swipe at it. The ball ricochets off McGinn and into the arms of Martinez. That could have gone anywhere.
26 min: Roberts flays one over the bar from the edge of the Villa box. He looks disappointed not to have worked the keeper at the very least.
25 min: El Ghazi really is on one tonight. He exchanges crisp passes with Watkins, down the inside-left channel, then launches a heatseeking daisycutter towards the bottom left. It’s inches wide, with Meslier rooted to the spot.
24 min: Costa gets the better of Targett as the pair contest a high ball down the Leeds right. Costa flees the scene with the ball, and he would have got away with a slight nudge had he not looked back guiltily. That persuaded the referee to blow up, and his box-bound run is brought to a halt.
22 min: The astonishing Raphinha twists McGinn’s blood down the inside-left channel. He earns a corner. Cooper meets the set piece with a strong header, but only sends the ball straight at Martinez, who claims in the dependable style.
21 min: A check by VAFingR for El Mohamady’s garden-variety foul on Dallas. For goodness sake. After an age, we are told what we knew already, that it was a free kick and nothing more.
19 min: Leeds put together a lovely series of first touches down the left, Cooper and Klich eventually teeing up Dallas, who creams a shot wide left from 20 yards. Better from Leeds, with Villa having enjoyed 45 percent of possession in the home side’s final third so far.
18 min: El Ghazi has another whack from distance, this one curling deliciously towards the bottom right. Meslier requires telescopic fingers to stop the shot.
17 min: Leeds are struggling to get out of their own half right now. Villa are on top.
15 min: El Ghazi’s corner leads to another, which lead to a couple of throws out on the left flank. Ramsey eventually ships possession and Leeds can finally clear their lines.
13 min: A small pocket of space for El Ghazi, just to the right of the D. He whips viciously towards the top left. Meslier sticks up a strong hand to tip over. El Ghazi looks in the mood, vengeance uppermost in mind.
11 min: Of course, Leeds score as many as they concede, and they nearly equalise when the ball’s worked to Raphinha on the left. He shoots. Blocked. The ball breaks to Roberts, just inside the box. His pelt is parried by Martinez. Leeds are losing, but they could just as easily be 2-1 up.
10 min: That’s the 27th first-half goal conceded by Leeds so far this season. Nobody has let in more. Next on the list: West Brom (26), Sheffield United (20) and Crystal Palace (19).
9 min: Or maybe it’s just coincidence, who knows. The never-ending trippy weirdness of sport, though, huh?
7 min: As mentioned in the preamble, the last time this fixture was played, El Ghazi was sent off in controversial circumstances, having been grifted by Bamford. The events at both ends of the pitch early doors this evening suggest some sort of karmic footballing deity genuinely does exist.
The corner’s hit long. Watkins, to the left of the D, aims for the top right. Just like Bamford up the other end, he slips. But the ball falls to El Ghazi, level with the right-hand post and clear, six yards out. He slips the ball past Meslier, and what a start this has been!
4 min: Now Villa have a corner down the right, Traore winning it off Dallas. And from it ...
3 min: El Ghazi takes it himself, and whips to the near post. The ball strikes Ayling’s limply hanging arm. Villa want a penalty, but they’re not getting one. Leeds clear. It’s fair to say this has been an eventful, topsy-turvy start, but hey, this is Leeds United, what else did you expect?
2 min: Villa go up the other end, and with their first attack of the evening, win a corner on the left, El Ghazi doing the work.
19 seconds: Bamford scampers down the right and tricks his way past Konsa. He enters the box and curls towards the far corner, but slips on the rutted pitch while doing so. Nevertheless, Raphinha nearly pokes it in at the far stick, but can’t quite get his boot on it. So close to a sensational start!
Villa get the party started ... but only once the knee has been taken. There’s no room for racism. Kick it out.
No word from Marcelo Bielsa, but who needs pre-match interviews anyway? The teams are out, Leeds in their famous white, Villa in second-choice black. We’ll be off sooner rather than later.
Dean Smith has made his changes “to get more energy in the middle of the pitch.” In his interview with Sky, he also says: “Leeds are a very good team ... they have their own way of playing ... we need to deny them space to run into ... we’re not a one-man team, we have some very good players who have excelled in the Premier League this year.”
Leeds make one change to the side named for the victory over Southampton. Helder Costa takes the place of Jack Harrison, who drops to the bench.
Aston Villa make two changes to the XI selected ahead of their defeat by Leicester. Marvelous Nakamba and Jacob Ramsey replace the benched Douglas Luiz and Ross Barkley.
Leeds United: Meslier, Llorente, Cooper, Struijk, Ayling, Klich, Dallas, Helder Costa, Roberts, Raphinha, Bamford.
Subs: Alioski, Casilla, Hernandez, Harrison, Davis, Gelhardt, Cresswell, Jenkins, Huggins.
Aston Villa: Martinez, Elmohamady, Konsa, Mings, Targett, Nakamba, McGinn, Traore, Ramsey, El Ghazi, Watkins.
Subs: Heaton, Taylor, Douglas Luiz, Trezeguet, Barkley, Engels, Sanson, Davis, Hayden.
Referee: Peter Bankes (Merseyside).
Aston Villa return to Elland Road for the first time since April 2019. That was a brouhaha for the ages, huh? Both teams were gunning for promotion, and the tinderbox exploded when Mateusz Klich played on after Jonathan Kodjia was down injured, scoring to put Leeds ahead. Cue a big cartoon cloud with boots and fists sticking out of it. Anwar El Ghazi was sent off after locking horns with Patrick Bamford, the striker later copping a two-match ban for conning the referee with a dive. Marcelo Bielsa cooled everyone’s boots by allowing Villa to score an unchallenged equaliser, a gesture of sportsmanship that earned the Leeds boss a Fifa Fair Play Award. The match finished 1-1, a fatal blow to Leeds’ promotion hopes.
Now, we’re supposed to think of the kids, aren’t we. But come off it and come on. More, please!
Bamford himself takes a much more mature view, mind you, and has asked Villa fans to kindly forgive and forget. “It seems like over the last couple of years we have become rivals with Villa, I don’t know why,” the extremely likeable striker said on the Official Leeds United Podcast. “Maybe it’s that whole thing I did with that stupid dive and we had to give them a goal and that kicked it off. That was one game though, surely you let go of that? I still get sent gifs and memes of me falling on the floor from that game and I’m like, ‘Come on, let it go, I’m so sorry’.”
A new friendly war breaks out at 5.30pm. It’s on!
from Football | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2MypOFS
via IFTTT
No Comment