Today’s Championship clash between Leeds United and Sheffield United wouldn’t decide the automatic promotion battle in the 2018/19 campaign, but it could certainly have had a bearing on things.
Welcoming our Yorkshire rivals to home soil for the tie, there was more than just bragging rights on display given the three horse race at the top of the second tier table and the closeness of the points.
Leeds were certainly up for the tie and utterly dominated both halves in reality, but the visitors scored with the games only registered effort on target to steal the points. Late on with Pontus Jansson already having taken a knock as it looked like he jarred his knee in the turf, Kiko Casilla saw a straight red card and the Swede ended the game between the sticks.
Down to ten men we still had some big chances, but just couldn’t find the net.
Massive disappointment but the promotion battle is far from over yet.
Speaking to the Star following the fulltime whistle, manager Marcelo Bielsa said of the tie.
“Nobody can say that it’s a crucial result because there are still 24 points at stake. You can’t say that this result is crucial but at the same time, we can’t deny the importance of this game. The game was very important and we lost it. I don’t want to underestimate the victory of the opponent but if we analyse the game we can’t be unsatisfied. We’re disappointed with the result and if the opinion is that we didn’t deserve to draw, I have a different opinion. What happened today (missed chances) has happened many times in past games. We had three times more chances to score than the opponent and they scored the goal. After undergoing so many situations like today, I don’t feel I have the right to explain how unfair the result is.”
💬 | Watch Marcelo’s post-Match press conference following today’s clash at Elland Road https://t.co/Z81ylowhBc
— Leeds United (@LUFC) March 16, 2019