LeedsmanagerBielsa rejects ‘lucky’ taunt
leeds united 2
Roofe (69), Hernandez (86)
bristol city 0
Marcelo Bielsa has dismissed accusations that Leeds United were lucky to beat Bristol City.
The Yorkshiremen opened the scoring on 69 minutes when Kemar Roofe turned home a long-range Pablo Hernandez strike.
It was game over when Hernandez headed home Samuel Saiz’s perfect cross four minutes from time.
But the game dramatically swung in United’s favour when Josh Brownhill was red-carded for two bookable offences on 55 minutes.
Roofe drilled an effort wide on 59 minutes after getting past a defender and into the box.
Ezgjan Elioski couldn’t find a finish from a tight angle on the hour mark after a good pass from Mateusz Klich carved out an opening.
Klich drilled an effort straight at the keeper seconds later before Leeds finally got the breakthrough.
And City boss Lee Johnson was quick to insist his side had been hard-done by.
“I thought they (Leeds) were lucky today. I thought they got away with it. We were the side who looked like going on to win the game until the red card.
“The referee took the easy decision in front of a big crowd. The referee wants to run the show these days.
“There were decisions that we didn’t get but I don’t care about the refs because they do it to us every week.
“We have had some poor refs the last few weeks.
“There are plenty of positives we can take from this. We were
Huffer 6; Dallas 6, Halme 6 (Saiz 64, 6), Cooper 6, Douglas 6; Phillips 7, Hernandez 7, Forshaw 6, Klich 7 (Bakerat 82, 5); Alioski 7 (Harrison 61, 6), Roofe 7. Unused subs: Sáiz, Davis, Shackleton, Clarke, Miazek
leeds united:
bristol city:
Maenpaa 6; Hunt 5, Kalas 6, Webster 6, Kelly 5; Eliasson (Diedhiou 62, 5), Pack 6, Brownhill 6, Adelakun 5 (Walshat 62, 5); Paterson 5 (Eisaat 78, 5), Weimann 5. Unused subs: Pisano, Dasilva, Baker, O’Leary right in it until the red card and were in a good position to get a result. We were the better side once we settled.
“We were breaking well and our shape was good.
“We did not get enough shots on target, we are disappointed, but we feel we got our game back and we have to encourage the players.”
But Bielsa said his side had more than deserved their victory.
“It’s a point of view that we have to respect,” he said. “But we conceded virtually no chances to our opponents. I don’t remember anything of note that they created.
“It was a very comfortable debut for our goalkeeper today.
“That we played with one player more made it easy for us. But that wasn’t the only reason we won. We did not dominate the end of the first half or the start of the second half but we were dominant from that point on. I thought we were very good when we had the man advantage.
“I am pleased with the performance of Alioski.” Kemar Roofe turned home a long-range Pablo Hernandez strike. This was soon followed by Hernandez making it two and there was no way back for City. To go from being in the stands as a fan, to being on the pitch, it couldn’t have gone any better @will_1huffer