Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
THAT’S A RAP
Brazilian star keeps his cool to score an injury-time penalty winner
RAPHINHA scored a 93rdminute penalty to give Leeds only their third Premier League victory last night.
Marcelo Bielsa’s men looked like being frustrated by Crystal Palace at Elland Road before Liam Cooper’s header struck Marc Guehi’s arm in stoppage time.
Referee Kevin Friend pointed to the spot after consulting the VAR and Raphinha showed icecool nerves to stroke the ball home past Vicente Guaita for his sixth goal of the season.
Until then it had appeared a second successive goalless draw would keep them just above the relegation scrap.
But victory lifted Leeds up to 15th place – five points above the drop zone.
Leeds played most of the game with their trademark intensity, but yet again could not turn the possession into a goal until late on.
They have still only managed 13 goals in their opening 14 league games, compared to 24 at the same stage last season.
Patrick Bamford cannot return quick enough from his ankle injury.
And the England striker could return against Brentford on Sunday after playing 90 minutes for the Under-23s on Monday.
There were positives for Leeds and Adam Forshaw gets better with every game following nearly two years out injured, while Stuart Dallas was back to his lung-busting best.
For Palace it was a second defeat on the spin following a home reverse against Aston Villa.
Initially, it was like the Leeds of old as Bielsa’s side pressed the life out of Palace and penned them back in their own half.
The home side could not convert this pressure into clear-cut chances, though, and Forshaw turned and fired a leftfoot shot wide.
Bielsa deployed Kalvin Phillips in his favourite holding midfield role after his failed experiment of playing him at centre-half at Brighton on Saturday when he hooked him at half-time.
The England star was all energy and he won possession just outside the Palace box to burst down the right channel and fire into the side netting when he should have crossed.
Patrick Vieira’s Palace were a threat on the break through the pacy Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha, who enjoyed a full-blooded battle with rightback Dallas on the left.
Ayew had a penalty appeal waved away by the referee when he went down in the box after tangling with left-back Pascal Struijk.
Leeds’ tempo dropped and Palace went close through effrey Schlupp when he fired wide. Bielsa (below) was not happy at half-time and replaced Mateusz Klich with Rodrigo and Struijk with recognised left-back Junior Firpo. Firpo had a shocker, firstly losing possession then was caught out of position before racing back to concede a free-kick just outside the box to earn a booking. Thankfully for Firpo, Conor Gallagher struck the free-kick against the wall and Zaha blazed over from the rebound.
Rodrigo did not do much better and he squandered a glorious chance when Leeds swept upfield and he shot wide from Daniel James’ centre. Christian Benteke came on for Palace and should have scored when he headed wide at the back post from Zaha’s cross in a huge let-off for Leeds.