It’s been a disappointing start to the 2020/21 campaign for Leeds United, with defeats to Liverpool and Hull City in the EFL Cup, but the performance against the Champions was positive and if we replicated that today in our second Premier League fixture against Fulham, we would undoubtedly be up and running for the year.
Manager Marcelo Bielsa certainly won’t panic and he’ll keep faith with the players, but those three points would be massive.
It wasn’t a great start though as we lost Pablo Hernandez to injury during the warm-up, so we had to hope that wasn’t an omen for what followed, and it wasn’t, as five minutes into the game Helder Costa had put us 1-0 up.
But then the game turned thanks to the Video Assistant Referee as a highly contentious penalty was awarded to Fulham despite it very much looking like a deliberate dive and Mitrovic converted to make it 1-1. Can always rely on the Referee can’t you – because then he levelled matters up.
Up steps Mats Klich from the spot and 2-1 and that’s the half.
Bielsa changed things up a little at the break taking Rodrigo off for Tyler Roberts and five minutes later, Patrick Bamford had made it 3-1. It then didn’t take long for Helder Costa to get his brace as he put us 4-1 to the good in minute 57.
Fulham gave themselves a lifeline shortly after but at 4-2 it had to be over didn’t it?
No, it wasn’t, it was soon 4-3 as Mitrovic completed his brace and we were into squeaky bum time for the final 20 minutes.
Both sides had more opportunities, but thankfully we held out to record our first Premier League win of the season, but if every game is going to finish 4-3 I don’t think my heart will be able to take it.
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For Hull’s Sake – Leeds Youngsters Learn A Lesson That Could Have A PL Benefit – Match Stats
Elland Road
Premier League
19/09/2020 4:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Anthony Taylor
| Leeds United | Fulham | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helder Costa (5, 57), Klich (pen 41), Bamford (50) | Mitrovic (pen 34, 67), De Cordova-Reid (62) | ||||||
| Meslier | Areola | ||||||
| Ayling | Tete | ||||||
| Koch | Hector | ||||||
| Cooper | Odoi | ||||||
| Dallas | Bryan | ||||||
| Phillips | Zambo Anguissa | ||||||
| Helder Costa | Reed | 70 | |||||
| Rodrigo | 45 | Cavaleiro | |||||
| Klich | Onomah | 58 | |||||
| Harrison | Kamara | 58 | |||||
| Bamford | 70 | Mitrovic | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Poveda | Kebano | 58 | |||||
| Alioski | 70 | Cairney | |||||
| Roberts | 45 | Knockaert | |||||
| Bogusz | Rodak | ||||||
| Struijk | Ream | ||||||
| Caprile | De Cordova-Reid | 58 | |||||
| Shackleton | Lemina | 70 | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 10 | Goal attempts | 14 |
| 7 | On Target | 6 |
| 5 | Corners | 3 |
| 13 | Fouls | 17 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 50 | % | 50 |