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Patrick Bamford loves to play outside the home. Leeds’ top scorer produced a wonderfully ‘violent’ goal between the two, as Leicester lost for the first time in 10 matches to miss a return to second place in the Premier League.
The Leeds No. 9 threw a memorable left-footed shot into the top corner with 20 minutes remaining, while Marcelo Bielsa’s high-energy team posted two wins on the road in five days after their win at Newcastle.
Eight of Bamford’s 11 league goals have come from Elland Road and, after a four-game rest period without a goal, he was also responsible for assists from Stuart Dallas and Jack Harrison when Leeds canceled out Harvey Barnes’ lead. he had given Leicester, who missed Jamie Vardy’s leading edge and Wilfred Ndidi’s presence in midfield.
It has been reported that Nathaniel Chalobah is likely to join Leicester from Watford today.
Of the promoted teams, Leeds have more points than West Brom and Fulham combined and, with Rodrigo and Raphinha’s injuries, they ended up with a team playing for the championship last July. Bielsa said: “When the club decided to put together the squad for this campaign, all the players were kept because we thought they were at this level.
“To be equal to our opponents we have to make them worse and try to preserve our virtues. Doing this at the same time requires enormous physical effort. We have to run a lot to put pressure on the rivals so that they don’t come close to our goal ”.
This was a performance by Bielsa. Leeds’ insistence on going man-to-man when out of possession offered Barnes the space to run from deep in midfield, after James Justin directed an errant long pass from Liam Cooper, to reach the edge of the box. penalty. There he played a one-two with James Maddison before his clean feet allowed home plate to direct a shot with his right foot into the far corner, just past Ilan Meslier’s dip.
It was his sixth goal or assist in the last seven games and, with Vardy recovering from hernia surgery, this penetration is the least Leicester need to stay in the hunt.
However, at 127 seconds, Leeds had tied in a very similar way to Bielsa. After Luke Ayling easily intercepted Maddison’s pass, Dallas made a good diagonal run from left to right behind the Leicester defense to receive Bamford’s astute punctuality and shoot, with his right foot, past Kasper Schmeichel.
Each team had a correctly disallowed goal and each was forced to make a substitution due to injuries to Rodrigo and Timothy Castagne before half-time as the teams faced each other for leather.
Brendan Rodgers has excelled in his changes to the game, but although his change of form to three at the rear and three at the front, with Caglar Soyuncu replacing Marc Albrighton, initially unsettled Leeds, they were unable to capitalize.
With Maddison and Barnes playing closer to Ayoze Perez, Bielsa ordered Dallas to pass center-backs Cooper and Pascal Struijk, so Kalvin Phillips could remain in his role as host in midfield.
Leicester came in immediately after the break, with excellent interaction culminating with Tielemans playing on Justin, but the winger took too long and his shot was blocked.
Then came Bamford’s super goal. Jonny Evans didn’t get much hold on his punt and Struijk stepped in to beat Perez to the ball. It was Raphinha, whose exquisite first pass around the corner invited Bamford to shoot, left-handed, a brilliant shot into the far upper corner.
“It was a beautiful goal,” Bielsa said. “It was in a part of the goal that is difficult to find considering the violence of the shot.”
Evans may have equalized, as he reached out to stab a deflected shot after Soyuncu headed into Maddison’s corner, but it was Leeds whose remarkable energy allowed them to break out and score again with six minutes remaining.
It was from a Leicester attacking free throw that Dallas, in the left-back slot, managed to advance the ball down the line. Mateusz Klich faced a one-on-one run towards the touchline in his own half with the last Leicester defender, and won it. He shoved the ball forward into a Leicester open half, and Bamford led the charge with three Leeds players ahead of Evans. Leeds’ leading scorer tempted Schmeichel and stepped into the empty net for Harrison to do with his side foot.
It is the first time Leicester has lost after going ahead this season, but Rodgers said: “They deserved to win the game.”