Good Morning. It's Monday 20th March, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Leeds victorious in six goal thriller
Leeds climbed to 14th in the table after defeating Wolves in a six goal thriller at Molineux over the weekend. The goal tally tells just half the story; throw in seven yellow cards, two reds, a 40 yard lob and more VAR controversy than you can shake a stick at, and you've got yourself a classic, albeit with a rare happy ending for Yorkshire's finest.
Leeds settled their nerves early on, after Jack Harrison blasted them ahead on six minutes, after great work from Gnonto. The Italian maestro made easy work of Semedo, as he collected the ball on the left wing, before cutting the ball back from the by-line. Harrison skipped past Jonny's diving tackle, before striking the ball first time, into the right hand corner of the net.
They doubled their advantage just after the interval. Roca's corner fell nicely to Luke Ayling, unmarked on the far post. His close range diving header, followed by his trademark cartwheel, and forward roll may not get him into the British gymnastic squad, but it sent 3000 travelling Leeds fans delirious.
Thirteen minutes later Kristensen got in on the act. He had only been on the pitch sixty seconds, when he robbed Jonny of the ball, deep in the Wolves penalty area, after a long hopeful diagonal ball from Harrison. The young Dane twisted and turned past Kilman, before firing Leeds 3-0 up with less than half an hour remaining.
A few minutes later, Wolves gave themselves hope, when Jonny's 40 yard lob reduced the deficit to two, when Meslier got caught in no-mans-land, after coming out of his area to head the ball clear. This was followed very quickly with a second after Cunha's strike took a wicked deflection off Wober. Leeds quickly regrouped, as Wolves threw everything at them for the final 15 minutes.
Their (Wolves) quest for an equaliser went from Ambitious to almost impossible when Jonny received a straight red card for almost breaking Luke Ayling's leg in half with five minutes remaining. To rub salt into the wound, Leeds grabbed a forth deep into stoppage time, when Summerville released Rodrigo on the edge of the penalty area. He skipped past Lemina, before chipping the ball past Sa.
Replays showed that Roca had tugged Traore's shorts in the build up to the goal, which incensed the Wolves bench, leading to a melee, in which unused substitute Matheus Nunez was shown a straight red card.
When did wolves reach to this level of entitlement
When did wolves reach to this level of entitlement. Their behaviour both on and off the pitch at the weekend, not only shows disrespect towards Leeds, but should bring their conduct under review with the FA.
Whilst many fans up and down the County are of the opinion that ref's are out to get em, Leeds would have a stronger case than most to evidence this; yet you don't see them wining about it, to the same degree of their West Midland opponents.
Decisions will not always go your way. If truth be known, Dawson should have been sent off for a second bookable offence during the first half. He was either trying to choke or sexually assault Patrick Bamford, both of which are pretty strong arguments for a booking, but having already received a yellow card, the former Spurs man was let off.
Did they have a strong case for a penalty - debatable! Should they have been given a free kick in the lead up to Leeds fourth goal - probably, but for Julen Lopetegui to verbally attack the officials like he did in his post match press conference, and say he could write a book about decisions that have gone against them is screaming for an FA charge - surely?
Llorente nightmare continues
Roma may be having second thoughts about purchasing Diego Llorente. With 47 minutes of game time to his name since joining in January, the 29yo made a rare appearance at the weekend as a half time substitute against Lazio. However, 33 minutes later, having gone 1-0 down, the substitute got substituted. In December, Leeds extended his contract to the Summer of 2026 at the cost of £45,000 a week.
