BUCKET & SPARED Eat us... but we nearly beat them
Bielsa: It’s easy for Pep’s superior City to be
PEP GUARDIOLA received a painful reminder of the lesson of the hare and the tortoise from his old mentor Marcelo Bielsa as Manchester City dropped more points.
City burst from the starting blocks and should have had the game won in the opening third as they blitzed Leeds.
But they only had Raheem
Sterling’s fine finish to show for their dominance and slowly the wily Bielsa’s side began to play their way into the game.
They equalised through substitute
Rodrigo’s first goal for the club and might have won when the Spain striker’s header was touched onto the bar by Ederson.
Bielsa said: “The start and the end were with City and the end of the first half and the beginning of the second half were a bit better for us
“For them to be superior to us is pretty easy for them, it doesn’t require much effort. Whereas for us it requires us to go to the limit to be on their level.
“We couldn’t take the ball off them and they were taking the ball off us very easily.
“We did it with a lot of effort, a lot of aggression to win the ball back, and the confidence in our game grew. It wouldn’t have been fair if we had won the match, it would’ve been possible, but not fair.”
After their seismic 5- 2 loss to Leicester last week, this game highlighted more weaknesses for City.
Yet again they were suspect at the back and Benjamin Mendy’s gaffe almost cost a goal, while Ederson made an uncharacteristic mistake to gift Rodrigo his strike.
Guardiola (left) will also be concerned by his team’s wastefulness – City created more than enough chances to bury Leeds.
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Leeds’ insistence on passing it out from the back played into City’s hands and De Bruyne pounced on Meslier’s errant kick to unleash a shot which was blocked by Robin Koch.
Leeds needed to make their chances count, but Ezgjan Alioski wastefully headed over at the back post from Luke Ayling’s cross.
City cranked up the pressure another notch and Stuart Dallas made a goalsaving block to keep out Torres’s shot before Sterling made the breakthrough on 17 minutes.
Another poor kick by Meslier put Leeds in trouble and Liam Cooper failed to retain possession to allow Sterling to drift inside, inside past Ayling and Cooper, Cooper before curling home a right-footed shot into the bottom corner.
Foden went close with a couple of efforts before Aymeric Laporte headed just past the post. But City lost momentum and Leeds might have levelled when Dallas was through, only for Kyle Walker to do enough to put him off and Ederson saved his effort.
Ederson made a better stop when Mendy went to sleep to let Ayling in.
Leeds never gave up and Bielsa’s introduction of Rodrigo gave them more impetus. The Spain striker clipped the top of the bar from an angled drive on the left before he levelled.
Ederson made a hash of trying to punch away Kalvin Phillips’ corner and Rodrigo knocked home the loose ball.
Leeds were invigorated, City were hesitant, and then Ederson redeemed himself by brilliantly touching Rodrigo’s header onto the bar.
City believed they should have had at least one penalty late on for handball, while Sterling felt he was fouled. But Leeds survived and no one would begrudge them their point.
LEEDS UNITED: Meslier 6; Ayling 8, Koch 6, Cooper 6, Dallas 7; Phillips 7; Costa 6, Klich 6 ( Davis 76), Roberts 6 (Rodrigo 55, 7), Alioski 5 (Poveda 46, 6); Bamford 6.
Unused subs: Caprile, Llorente, Struijk, Shackleton. MANCHESTER CITY: Ederson 6; Walker 7, Dias 6, Laporte 6, Mendy 5 (Ake 71, 6); Foden 7, Rodri 6, De Bruyne 7; Torres 6 (Silva 65, 6), Mahrez 6 (Fernandinho 77), Sterling 7.
Unused subs: Steffen, Stones, Delap, Palmer.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Luke Ayling. Typified Leeds’ spirit and was great at both ends of the pitch.
REFEREE: Mike Dean 7.