Mateusz Klich inspires five-star Leeds to go top and leave Stoke struggling
The ogre looming in Marcelo Bielsa’s rearview mirror receded somewhat as Leeds United returned to both swashbuckling form and the top of the Championship. Thanks to high calibre performances from, among others, Hélder Costa and substitute Pablo Hernández, they now sit one point ahead of West Brom and, more significantly, six in front of third-placed Brentford.
The six straight second-tier wins by Thomas Frank’s side had left Leeds looking a little anxious at kick-off but, on this thoroughly compelling – not to mention fabulously entertaining – evidence, it seems their 16-year Premier League exile is now less than a fortnight from ending after all.
Bielsa needs seven points from the four remaining games to guarantee promotion and seemed, by his standards, quietly satisfied. “It was a positive performance,” said the Argentinian who emphasised that the word “enjoyment” was “not quite the right one” to describe his emotions over the 90 minutes.
Stoke are more concerned with the prospect of falling into League One and have now dropped to 21st, one point and one position above the relegation zone. Significantly Michael O’Neill’s side proved incapable of capitalising on the sort of home nerves that saw the normally impeccable home centre-half, Ben White, swiftly booked for an unnecessary foul on Nick Powell.
If O’Neill’s players sensed opportunity they never even threatened to exploit that potentially inhibiting home yellow card. Instead as the West Yorkshire rain cascaded down, Leeds – almost imperceptibly – began taking control and Stoke made three goal preventing interceptions. First a brave block on the part of Bruno Martins Indi denied Mateusz Klich a goal and then, in quick succession, James McClean somehow cleared Patrick Bamford’s shot off the line before Danny Batth performed wonders to block Tyler Roberts’s follow up effort.
It was becoming so wet that the painted cardboard cut outs of home fans adorning virtually every seat in the stands looked somewhat underdressed. They had been assembled so cleverly by the Elland Road staff that a surprisingly effective illusion of intimacy was created – with the only caveat being that real live locals would never all be sufficiently cavalier to leave their anoraks and cagoules at home on match days – even in July.
As half-time beckoned, a hint of proper summer returned. It was not so much that it stopped raining as that Leeds finally took the lead. When Tommy Smith lunged at Costa and sent him crashing just inside the area the referee immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Klich stepped forward to send Jack Butland the wrong way, rolling the ball into the opposite corner.
The potential importance of that stress-relieving goal was emphasised by the small group of suited Leeds executives in the directors’ area who celebrated wildly and almost as loudly as the recorded blast of “Marching on Together” which serenaded Bielsa’s players as they ran out for the second half.
Suitably inspired, they soon not only doubled their lead but ruthlessly dismantled a group of increasingly demoralised visitors left dizzy and disorientated by the kaleidoscopic, and exhaustingly relentless, nature of the home side’s passing, movement and positional interchanging.
When Stuart Dallas’s run in behind, slick one-two and slide-rule pass deceived newly-arrived Stoke substitute James Chester, Costa was left with sufficient time to assess his options and place a well-calibrated shot beyond Butland’s reach.
Bamford should have extended the home advantage but instead volleyed against the bar from six yards. No matter; the fallout from a short corner routine swiftly saw Hernández cue up Liam Cooper to lash home the third.
Hernández scored the fourth himself, defying Stokes’s one-time England goalkeeper from 20 yards at the end of a gorgeous move also featuring Luke Ayling, Costa and an audacious Bamford dummy.
Bamford finally scored himself at the death, sending an accomplished left-foot shot crashing in off a post after his connection with Ayling’s ball over the top.