There can be no doubting that Leeds United dominated and battered Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Friday night; the stats highlight that enough.
64% possession, 25 shots, 7 on-target shots – it is those numbers that point to the dominance that Leeds United held over their Hillsborough hosts. Yet the final score is the only set of numbers that matter – the game ending 1-1 on the night.
It was a game where two class goals were the factors that both sets of fans will take away from the game. First Sheffield Wednesday fans were treated to an Adam Reach ‘worldie’ to open the scoring. The sequence they saw went: throw-in, header, bounce, hooked half-volley.
The ball looped up over the stranded, and hopelessly reaching, Bailey Peacock-Farrell and into the Leeds goal off of both uprights. Whilst there may have been some elements of hit-n-hope luck about Reach’s effort, there was no doubting it was genuinely meant as a shot at goal and not some lofted cross that got lucky.
That was on the stroke of half-time, right in front of the visiting Leeds United fans, the effort enough to silence them as halfway in the match approached. The stunned silence was part in dumbstruck realisation that their side were 1-0 down, in a half where they’d had chances to put the game well and truly to bed.
Now chasing a game they were once fully in charge of, their task was made a little easier as the home side Owls started the second-half sitting back and looking to hit Leeds on the break. The quietened Whites fans didn’t need to wait long in the second period to be roused into a vocal crescendo – nine minutes to be exact.
It was Mateusz Klich’s fourth goal of the season that had the travelling Whites on their feet, a sublime, curled finish from the edge of the area taking him on a level with Kemar Roofe as the club’s joint-leading scorer. But the finish was only a small part of the excellence that was his equaliser; there was much, much more.
Pass, pass, pass, pass…. SCREAMER!
Call it the Bielsa effect pic.twitter.com/jfaEStjGPg
— Soccer AM (@SoccerAM) September 29, 2018
As Soccer AM’s tweet points out, it was a sequence of pass, pass, pass, pass that led to Klich’s SCREAMER of a finish – 12 uncontested passes as it turned out. Wednesday players were pulled hither and thither, dragged out of position before Samu Saiz’s neat inside pass to Tyler Roberts, his bunted lay-off to Klich and the Polish midfielder’s finish brought the sides level.
It was an effort that rightly got Leeds United fans talking over on Twitter. Here’s a ;look at some of what they were saying:
The Wednesday goal was a great individual effort the leeds goal was an orchestrated team effort personally prefer the leeds goal great move
— Tony Hannan (@tonyhannan) September 29, 2018
Love the standard and attitude Bielsa and backroom staff have installed
— Keep the Faith (@Buybeckford) September 29, 2018
That’s the first time I’ve watched it back with all the build up, which for me makes it better than the first goal
— MPSymonds (@simmy1975) September 29, 2018
Sorry but that’s premiership passing so man city .
Dare I say that was champions League standard .
We are Leeds we are proud.
MOT— Andy cazaux (@andylufccazaux) September 29, 2018
If that had been in the Premier league, they would have shown it on the national news.
— Ken Taylor (@KenTayl03658238) September 30, 2018
Thing of beauty!
— Graham Pedder #FBPE (@Graham_Pedder) September 29, 2018
Clubs in championship except for maybe derby and brentford should watch this to know what their fans want to be paying their hard earned money for tickets to watch
— bielsa’s lucky blue bucket (@delwright21) September 30, 2018