Harrison to the rescue as Leeds keep place at top
“El Loco” had never seen anything quite like this. The 63-year-old may have tasted Olympic success and domestic honours in his native Argentina, but Marcelo Bielsa had not led a Leeds team into the hostile surrounds of Cold Blow Lane for one of English football’s most notorious fixtures.
The Yorkshire giants were top of the division when they arrived in southeast London last September. They lost and their early-season form spiralled out of control, leading to Thomas Christiansen’s departure in February.
For Leeds, a worrying symmetry was all but confirmed as Jed Wallace’s second-half goal separated the teams with a minute remaining, leaving Bielsa to contemplate his first league defeat.
He did not have to, thanks to Jack Harrison’s low 20-yard strike in front of the jubilant away fans, keeping Leeds at the summit. Harrison is with Leeds on loan from Manchester City.
“Forgetting the last five minutes, we could have won the game,” said Bielsa, speaking through an interpreter. He said his first job of the evening would be to phone his friend and former pupil, Pep Guardiola.
“Of course I will call him,” he smiled. “He already knows that I’m thankful and I don’t need Jack Harrison to score to be thankful.
“The main tactics of our opponent are the throw-ins, the corners, the long balls, and all of these are legitimate tactics. To impose our style we needed to do more complicated things.”
“I felt we matched Leeds throughout the 90 minutes,” said Neil Harris, the Millwall manager. “At the end, we should have won the game.”
Leeds were almost ahead on the stroke of half-time. Tyler Roberts, playing for the first time since signing from West Brom in January, slid the ball under Ben Amos, but the Millwall keeper got enough on it to prevent a goal.
Spaniard Samuel Saiz has enjoyed an excellent start to the season under the former Atletico Bilbao manager and was the game’s best player by a distance – at the heart of everything creative and embodying Bielsa’s feverish pressing style.
But Millwall’s trademark is power and aggression, and it was via that route that they took an unexpected lead. Leonard’s long throw was flicked on by centre half Jake Cooper and Wallace side-footed the finish.
Some of the less savoury chants may have escaped Bielsa as he knelt in the dugout, fixated on his team’s efforts. He leapt to his feet and punched the air along with the travelling supporters as the net bulged and “We are top of the league” rang out once more, cueing angry confrontations between the two benches.