Leeds United’s return to the Premier League has been pretty pleasing all things considered, but today’s reacquaintance with Old Trafford and Manchester United was always going to be a tricky affair for the squad and manager Marcelo Bielsa.
Despite dominating slightly more of the ball and almost having the same efforts at target as the hosts in the first half, they were unexpectedly clinical (given the season they’ve had so far) and we found ourselves on the wrong end of a five goal first 45.
McTominay had a quick brace inside of three minutes and Bruno Fernandes and Lindelof added to their lead, but minutes before the break Liam Cooper gave some hope of a second half comeback to make it 4-1.
Would the second half be as bizarre as the first?
Our Argentinian gaffer made two quick changes with Phillips and Klich heading off, and being replaced by Struijk and Shackleton. Chances kept coming for both sides and it remained incredibly end to end, but with just over 20 minutes remaining in the tie, the hosts made it 5-1 and the hope of a comeback was over.
That didn’t mean the game was though. With the clock on 70 minutes, United received their obligatory per game penalty to make it six, and three minutes later we went down the other end and Stuart Dallas hit our second.
We had good chances to further reduce the deficit as well but it wasn’t to be.
6-2 final score.
Manchester United MotM
Illan Meslier
Liam Cooper
Stuart Dallas
Luke Ayling
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Dominant Leeds Get Their Reward Against Newcastle – Match Stats
Old Trafford
Premier League
20/12/2020 5:30 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Anthony Taylor
| Manchester United | Leeds United | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McTominay (2, 3), Bruno Fernandes (20, pen 70), Lindelof (37), James (66) | Cooper (41), Dallas (73) | ||||||
| De Gea | Meslier | ||||||
| Wan-Bissaka | Dallas | ||||||
| Lindelof | Ayling | ||||||
| Maguire | Cooper | 72 | |||||
| Shaw | 60 | Alioski | |||||
| McTominay | Phillips | 45 | |||||
| Fred | Dias Belloli | ||||||
| James | Rodrigo | ||||||
| Bruno Fernandes | 71 | Klich | 45 | ||||
| Rashford | 71 | Harrison | |||||
| Martial | Bamford | ||||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Bailly | Poveda | ||||||
| Pogba | Roberts | ||||||
| Cavani | 71 | Casilla | |||||
| Mata | Helder Costa | ||||||
| Henderson | Hernandez | ||||||
| Telles | 60 | Struijk | 45 | ||||
| Matic | Davis | 72 | |||||
| Greenwood | Shackleton | 45 | |||||
| van de Beek | 71 | Casey | |||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 26 | Goal attempts | 17 |
| 14 | On Target | 3 |
| 11 | Corners | 13 |
| 6 | Fouls | 6 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 41 | % | 59 |