Good Morning. It's Monday 8th August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Perfect start to campaign after early setback
Leeds started their 22/23 campaign in style, coming back from a goal down to beat Wolves in front of a packed out Elland Road crowd. This was the third time in as many games that Leeds had trailed their West Midland adversaries, only to deliver a sucker punch when they least expected it.
Last October, Rodrigo's 94th minutes penalty cancelled out Hwang Hee-chan's 10th minute strike to share the spoils. However, the pièce de résistance of comebacks took place in March, shortly after Jesse Marsch had taken over. Leeds found themselves 2-0 down, with only thirty left on the clock. Goals from Harrison, Rodrigo and an injury time winner from Ayling, completed Wolves misery on that day.
Leeds got off to the worst possible start after just five minutes. Pedro Neto outmuscled Kristensen deep on the left wing. His cross field long ball was headed down by Gibbs White into the pathway of Daniel Podence. His mishit volley smashed into the ground before bouncing up and over Meslier with the assistance of the underside of the crossbar.
Gradually, after a poor start, Leeds began to settle, and create chances of their own. Halfway through the first half, they got their reward. Arronson robbed Gibbs White of possession in his own penalty area, after the visitors failed to clear their lines. The ball fell kindly to Rodrigo, who fired a diagonal shot, hard and low past Sa at his near post. It was his fourth goal in two games, and third strike in as many matches against Bruno Lage's team.
Wolves looked the more dangerous side going into the break; only acrobatic saves from Meslier, kept the scores level at half-time. Leeds were the more dominant side in the second half, and deservedly got their winner fifteen minutes from time. Second half substitute Klich carved open the Wolves defence, releasing Bamford deep on the nearside penalty area. His low cross into the penalty area caused Rayan Ait-Nouri to turn the ball past his own keeper after pressure from Aaronson.
There are some things that you cannot say
Jesse Marsch and Bruno Lage exchanged angry words following the final whistle as tempers threatened to boil over. Lage was clearly unhappy about something Marsch had said during the first half and launched a verbal assault on the American. Marsch retaliated, and it seemed the incident may have escalated, but Lage retreated. During his post match presser, the Portuguese coach revealed:-
Nothing against the manager, they won and it was absolutely great,” “But there was a point in the first half when I heard something I didn’t like and I said that to him. When you come in the end and say, ‘Apologise' There are some things, in my opinion, that you cannot say and I just said that and after that I didn’t listen.
But the most important thing is that Leeds won so congratulations to the team, the players and the manager because we lived today an amazing moment with a great atmosphere and I’m here to play the game the way we want to play.
Marsch too, played down the incident, adding...
“It’s normal. I respect him (Lage) a lot and he does a good job with his team. So no problem. You could go back to Wolves away last year. It was emotion. I wanted to be respectful afterwards. But it didn’t quite go that way. But I’m OK and I think he’s OK.
Shipping container of Leeds shirts plunge into sea
The Daily Mail has reported that a shipping container of Leeds shirts has plunged into the sea. The cargo was headed for South East Asia where support for West Yorkshire's finest is growing fast. A severe outbreak of Covid in Singapore, (where the Leeds shirts are manufactured) has already slowed down production, and it is now feared that the latest hold up could have a detrimental effect on shirt sales, which are normally around 300,000.