Following defeat to Hull City in the final game of 2018, Leeds United were looking to bounce back to winning ways in the opening fixture of 2019 against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Despite the last defeat, the opening half of the Championship campaign has been very bright for manager Marcelo Bielsa’s side, and the performance against Hull only lacked goals from our point of view mainly but the hosts did cause a shock when they took the lead five minutes into the first half.
Leeds were more than in the game though and second-half goals from Jack Clarke and Ezgjan Alioski swung the advantage in our favour but that’s where it went slightly wrong.
Forest scored three times in seven odd minutes to take a 4-2 lead as the game came to an end and despite our best efforts, we couldn’t find a way back.
Disappointing, but given how the game played out few can doubt we were good value for a point and the players gave their all so I think manager Marcelo Bielsa will be taking the positives and we do remain top of the Championship table as Norwich slipped up again.
City Ground
Championship
1/01/2019 3:00 pm
Attendance: 29530
Referee: England
Nottingham Forest | Leeds United | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Colback (5, 69), Murphy (72), Osborn (76) | Clarke (52), Alioski (64) | ||||||
Pantilimon | Peacock-Farrell | ||||||
Darikwa | Ayling | ||||||
Hefele | 5 | Jansson | |||||
Fox | Phillips | ||||||
Robinson | Douglas | 78 | |||||
Yacob | Forshaw | ||||||
Colback | Harrison | 45 | |||||
Cash | Hernandez | ||||||
Antunes Carvalho | Klich | ||||||
Lolley | 65 | Alioski | |||||
Murphy | 94 | Roofe | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
Guedioura | 5 | Roberts | 78 | ||||
Osborn | 65 | Huffer | |||||
Steele | Baker | ||||||
Janko | Davis | ||||||
Yates | Shackleton | ||||||
Bastiao Dias | Clarke | 45 | |||||
Appiah | 94 | Halme |
Game Statistics |
||
13 | Goal attempts | 13 |
6 | On Target | 7 |
6 | Corners | 8 |
13 | Fouls | 13 |
2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
0 | Red Cards | 1 |
37 | % | 63 |