Leeds United 2 (Struijk 78, 90+5)
Sunderland AFC 1 (Isidor 32)
17th February 2024. EFL Championship
36,804.
Oh Wow! What a night that was! You can keep all your 7 – 0 thrashings! This is why we watch football, we need the tension, the uncertainty, the hope and, only at the 11th hour, the sweet taste of victory! It was a night no Leeds fan will ever forget, especially if it proves to be an important step towards promotion.
Leeds bossed this game like we’ve bossed pretty much every game this season, particularly on our own patch. This time it was 66 percent possession and 21 shots compared to just 6 for the usually lucky Black Cats. We had ten corners too, compared to none, zilch for the visitors. For once the xG figures pretty much matched the final score, 1.95 to Leeds and 0.5 for Sunderland. Having said all that though, there were very few clear cut chances made by either side – 11 of those 21 shots we had were blocked without doing any damage and only four were on target, the two goals and a couple of fairly routine saves from Paterson in the visitors’ goal, the best coming from a 25-yard Piroe strike that Paterson dived full length to stop. Credit to Sunderland, they may only have managed 6 shots all night but all six hit the target, producing mainly routine saves from Illan Meslier but a superb double save in the first couple of minutes. Meslier got down well to parry away a decent Jobe Bellingham shot but then was up quickly to block the follow-up shot from Patrick Roberts. Had he not been on his toes the game could have started very badly for Leeds. Meslier continues to rebuild his reputation.
As it was, things still went a bit dark for us on the half hour. Whether it was planned that way or not I’m not sure but the Leeds press today was less forceful than usual and, just after the half hour Ballard, was allowed to strike a long straight ball down the right wing for Wilson Isidor to chase. Ethan Ampadu was right with him, at first trying to tug at the Black Cat’s shirt. These days that’s dangerous though so Amps let go and that allowed Isidor the few inches he needed to get a shot away. It struck the far post and rebounded across the line. It was against the run of play and it was poor defending from Ampadu.
After that though it was pretty much all Leeds. But such openings as we created were limited. Dan James had a header straight at Paterson, Brenden Aaronson hit one of his trade mark shots over the bar – for a short player he does seem to hit too many over the bar! – and there was that long range Joel Piroe effort. Ao Tanaka almost reprised his goal against Hull too, but this time it curled over the angle and wide. Other than that we had to wait for the substitutions; Struijk and Rothwell replacing Tanaka and Gruev in the 71st minute; it was a master stroke by Daniel Farke as he commented after the game saying how he wanted to try to a) improve our delivery of the many set piece opportunities we were getting and b) have someone with some height to take advantage of the better delivery. It has to be said we made little use of the ten corners we won until it was Rothwell taking them; Ilia Gruev’s delivery was sadly lacking today.
We got to the 78th minute with time running out when Junior Firpo was unceremoniously floored out on the Leeds left wing. Joe Rothwell stood over the free-kick. He whipped it in at some pace and it was Pascal Struijk who got highest to glance a perfect header into the net. As soon as the ball hit the back of the net Daniel Farke made his next changes; on came Largie Ramazani and Mateo Joseph for Aaronson and Solomon. Sam Byram then replaced the yellow-carded Junior Firpo as the first couple of minutes of added time ticked away. We were into the very last seconds of the added five minutes when Leeds won another corner on the right wing. Joe Rothwell ran across to take it, perhaps sensing we had one last chance to steal all three points much as Sunderland were able to steal two from us up at their place in the dying seconds. I do like a dose of revenge!
Over came the corner and up went Sam Byram, just about getting his head to the ball but unable to direct it at goal. Instead if flew to Largie Ramazani on the left of the area but it came at him awkwardly and Largie’s attempted volley screwed off his boot and back to Joe Rothwell on the far side. Joe made to go right, checked back onto his left to dummy a defender out of the way, then whipped the ball across with his left boot. Paterson tried to get a fist on the ball but hardly deflected it at all and I reckon it would have flown in the net even without the head of Pascal making absolutely sure on the line. All hell broke loose then as Elland Road celebrated a priceless winner.
So, another fine performance from Leeds, another dominant performance, but this time against possibly the best team we’ve seen at Elland Road this season. Any thoughts that Sunderland’s young side will fade away are probably well-wide of the mark, although top two for them may now be too much of an ask as we’ve opened up a ten point gap to them after tonight. For Leeds, there is no sign of our performances faltering yet and we’ll need to be in the same shape next Monday when we face those other red and white stripes at Bramall Lane. It promises to be another titanic battle.
Game Statistics:
Leeds U Sunderland
Possession 66% 34%
Shots 21 6
On Target 4 6
Corners 10 0
Fouls 11 11
