BIELSA SORRY FOR HIS LATE DEN RUMPUS
Harrison equaliser triggers silly antics
LEEDS United manager Marcelo Bielsa accepted responsibility for the touchline confrontation that occurred towards the end of the hardfought draw at Millwall.
Bielsa confronted the home bench after they attempted to slow down the clock with their team 1-0 up and minutes away from inflicting on Leeds their first league defeat of the season.
As it turned out, the Whites’ unbeaten record remained intact, thanks to Jack Harrison’s 89th-minute equaliser, which actually put the visitors a point clear at the top of the Championship.
Bielsa said: “I take the responsibility for this situation because I am in football for longer than my colleague.
“I have to understand circumstances that you have during the game, you don’t have to take them as they are.
“If you win or you lose, it means a lot for us and sometimes you behave in a kind of way and just have to lament how we behaved.
“I think I have the obligation of not behaving like this and I shouldn’t allow myself to behave like this because when you get more experienced you should moderate your behaviour. That’s why I apologise.”
Bielsa’s opposite number at Millwall, Neil Harris, revealed the two parties have already put the incident behind them and was honest as to what caused it in the first place.
Harris said: “We should have given the ball back quicker in our dugout, but we don’t because
you had two minutes to go and we’re 1-0 up at home and they got excited when they scored a goal.
“But I’ve spoken to Marcelo downstairs and there are no problems whatsoever, it’s fine.”
The first half was a scrappy affair, with the best chance coming right at the end, as Tyler Roberts forced Ben Amos to make a good block after battling for Mateusz Klich’s long ball.
Before that, Shaun Williams sent a low shot from 25 yards skimming narrowly wide.
Millwall finally opened up the contest 10 minutes into the second half when Ryan Leonard’s long throw was flicked on by Jake Cooper, with Jed Wallace arriving to score at the back post from close range.
Leeds created their best chance after 62 minutes when Barry Douglas’ dangerous cross reached Luke Ayling round the back and Amos made a brave block to deny him. Amos was called into action again when Roberts stretched to reach Ayling’s cross.
Leeds finally found an equaliser with a minute of the 90 remaining, when Harrison seized on the ball following a header clear, before firing into the bottom corner.
Millwall could still have snatched it, however, but Tom Elliott sent a header from Wallace’s cross against a post in stoppage time.
Bielsa, who was without Kemar Roofe and Pablo Hernandez at The Den, said: “We draw the game at the end, we lacked the stability to recover for the last five minutes.
“For us, it’s still hard to resolve situations where we know in advance that we’re going to face them. We know we’ll have some kind of things during the game and we prepare to find solutions to that and it’s hard to avoid this. It means that we still have to improve – if you have a look for their corners, the set-pieces, the ball made a high movement and was going down, where usually the ball arrives to the box with a lot of strength.”
Following what was an improved performance from his side, Harris said: “I think it was a game of not a huge amount of chances and I thought we matched Leeds throughout.
“When you’re playing against a top side, and Leeds are a top side, they’re going to create the odd moment of brilliance and they had a couple of chances with clever play, or slight errors by us.
“But we scored a perfectly good goal, created other chances and, in the end, should have won the game.
“Am I sitting here bemoaning only getting a point? No.”