Leeds look to Raphinha but pay for loss of focus
Raphinha 26 Barnes 28 Att: 36,478
Raphinha’s impressive development for club and country continued at Elland Road yesterday although it was a sign of the challenges facing his Leeds manager, Marcelo Bielsa, that his efforts did not result in a sorely needed victory for his team.
The newly capped Brazil international struck a spectacular opening goal in the 26th minute but saw his team relinquish that lead, due to a chronic lack of concentration for which he was at least partly responsible, a mere 73 seconds later.
The goal still left him with five of the 11 Leeds have scored in their 11 league games to date and while a contribution of 45 per cent may suggest Bielsa has an unhealthy reliance on the former Rennes man, the contribution has been sorely needed due to the extended injury suffered by Patrick Bamford.
“There’s nothing new to say about him,” Bielsa said. “The important thing is he is maintaining his contribution regularly. He does the things he is capable of doing, in a higher or lesser way, but in every game. And he has an influence on people, and he impacts with his actions, always in the game.”
Signed just over a year ago, Raphinha is adapting increasingly well to the demands of the Premier League and will now jet off for international duty having topped his first three games for his country last month by scoring twice in an important World Cup qualifying victory over Uruguay. Given the mystery over when Bamford will return – his absence is now eight games and counting – Raphinha coming through this next tranche of matches unscathed would appear a major concern for Bielsa.
But at least there were long spells of this game when Leeds looked more like the side who performed so impressively last season. “That was probably more the Leeds team we have seen in terms of their running capabilities,” said Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers.
“The crowd really pushed them and helped the team, it was an amazing atmosphere, it felt like an oldschool British game. It was so good.”
Leeds capped an impressive start to the game when Raphinha won a free-kick after being fouled by Boubakary Soumare. The Brazilian curled a perfect left-foot delivery into the Leicester area, where it was missed by players from both sides, before curling past the unsighted Kasper Schmeichel into the far corner. The goalscorer’s overexuberant celebrations, in which he took off his shirt to reveal a tribute to Brazilian country singer Marilia Mendonca, who died in a plane crash on Friday, earned him a booking.
And Raphinha and his teammates were still not focused as they conceded almost directly from kickoff and a long Jonny Evans punt forward. Soumare outjumped Stuart Dallas to head on for Harvey Barnes, who took a controlling touch to create an angle and then unleash a magnificent effort into the top corner of the Leeds goal. It was the winger’s first league goal since February and a period of recuperating from two knee surgeries.
“He’s returning more to his old self,” Rodgers said. “Unfortunately he had to come off because he got a real whack on his leg. But he is just a huge talent. I just think that as the season goes on he’ll get better and better and he really showed his quality with that finish.”
Schmeichel had made fine early stops to keep out a deflected Jack Harrison shot and a Kalvin Phillips header while Ricardo Pereira also turned a Dallas corner inadvertently on to his own post.
Harrison should have restored the lead after the restart but could not control Phillips’ flick-on when unmarked at the far post.
Leicester thought they had taken the lead on a rare attack after 67 minutes, which ended with Ademola Lookman turning in a Youri Tielemans corner, only for Var to rule out the effort for offside.
And as Leicester pressed, Illan Meslier made a sharp save at the feet of Tielemans.