Leeds United needed a late goal from Sonny Perkins to force a replay against Cardiff City in the FA Cup this afternoon. The Whites Coach Jesse Marsch has shared his thoughts on the encounter.
Poor defending allowed Cardiff to go 2-0 up in the first half. In the second period, Leeds played much better with goals from Rodrigo and a Sonny Perkins 93rd-minute equaliser coming either side of a missed penalty from Rodrigo in what was a classic cup tie at the Cardiff City Stadium. The winners of the replay will now travel to either Boreham Wood or Accrington Stanley.
Willy Gnonto was the stand-out performer again for the visitors, looking lively all game. Darko Gyabi was also impressive in the midfield. New signing Max Wober came on as a second-half substitute and he too looked decent in a more advanced role. Jesse Marsch still needs to address the problems at the back as it was all too easy for Cardiff, a team that is in the bottom three of the Championship table, to get in on goal on numerous occasions.
As per LeedsLive, Jesse Marsch said, “We wanted to be more vertical. We wanted to play braver and often find our wingbacks in good positions to the attack because we thought they’d be compact. We didn’t do well enough with that and we invited them. I think a big turning point in the match is when Pascal plays unnecessarily back to Joel and that goes out for a corner kick and now they have a chance to feel like they can come into the match and their crowd can get into the match.”
“Once they feel like they have a chance, then the game starts to change. They get two goals, credit to them, credit to them for pushing, but, obviously, we’re still struggling to handle these moments appropriately.”
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He added, “As a manager, I’ve never lost to a lower division team in the cup, and part of it is because I demand that the players take it seriously and that we play with intensity as if it’s a first division match. We didn’t do that in the first half and we put ourselves at jeopardy and so we have to learn now with a young group what cup matches are and how to handle it.”
“Part of the challenge is also trying to teach our team to be bigger winners and understand how to handle things and how to manage moments and what real games are about. So I think we can use this as a stepping stone for us to move forward. But again, we always show heart, we always show belief when we need to.”
Leeds now travel to Aston Villa on Friday the 13th January for an 8 pm kick-off in the Premier League.