Leeds 0-2 Manchester United: Late goals from Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho see Red Devils beat bitter rivals at the second attempt this week at Elland Road to cement top four spot
- Manchester United secured a 2-0 victory away to Leeds at the second attempt against their rivals this week
- Erik ten Hag’s side had to be patient but Marcus Rashford scored and then Alejandro Garnacho netted
- Leeds, who are still without a permanent manager, put in a spirited display but couldn’t take any points
They had built a wall of sound at Elland Road and the volume had barely dropped. Every minute full of fury and loathing and visceral roars and taunts. There were screams of approbation when tackles flew in and jeers of derision when a Manchester United player was hurt. The noise and the intensity were relentless. For Erik ten Hag and his team this was football as a test of character. This was trial by hostility.
Then, ten minutes from the end, the noise and the fury and the hope ceased. The ball hung in the air from Luke Shaw’s superb cross from the left and the home fans saw Marcus Rashford rising unmarked eight yards out. Suddenly, there was silence. Time stopped. Rashford guided the ball precisely past Ilhan Meslier in the Leeds goal. Still, there was silence. All the energy had gone. All the optimism had gone.
After a beat, the silence was punctured. In the far corner of the ground, the away fans bounced and leapt with joy and Rashford ran to them to celebrate. What a season he is having and this was one of the highlights of it, a goal that said a lot about his fortitude as well as his ability. It was the England striker’s 21st goal of the campaign in all competitions, one shy of his biggest ever total, amassed during 2019-20. He is not just back to his best. He is better than ever.
It must have felt like deliverance as well as victory for Rashford and his teammates after so long running the gauntlet. Premier League footballers as pampered millionaires? They didn’t play like that yesterday. This was an old-fashioned street-fight. No holds barred. A crowd of 36,919, most of them Leeds supporters, had tried to will their team away from the relegation zone but now they had to admit defeat.
Leeds probably deserved a point in the second meeting between these sides in five days but it was hard to begrudge Ten Hag’s team the victory, too. There are not many places like Elland Road in English football any more.
Marcus Rashford (right) and Alejandro Garnacho (left) scored as Manchester United won 2-0 away to Leeds United
Rashford scored with a header to put Manchester United in the lead after latching onto a cross from Luke Shaw
Talented youngster Garnacho celebrates after his goal late on made it 2-0 to Manchester United against Leeds
Manchester United manager congratulates Rashford following the full time whistle as United’s victory was confirmed
There are not many places like this in a Premier League that sometimes feels as though it is too neat and ordered and controlled and corporate. Elland Road is a throwback atmosphere and Manchester United showed they could handle it and prosper.
That atmosphere, sadly, included Leeds fans goading visiting supporters about the Munich Air Disaster and visiting supporters singing about the deaths of Leeds supporters in Istanbul in 2000. It remains a sickening, revolting part of the modern game and it disfigured the match. ‘The League is treating the issue of tragedy chanting as a priority,’ a Premier League statement said later, ‘and as a matter of urgency.’
United’s victory was garnished by a second goal, from substitute Alejandro Garnacho, and it was a fitting way for them to move ahead of Manchester City, at least for a couple of hours, into second place in the Premier League. A few years ago, in a time before Ten Hag, United would have folded in the white heat of this game. They would have crumpled. They are made of sterner stuff now.
Defeat sent Leeds deeper into trouble. They have gone nine league games without a win. They sacked their manager, Jesse Marsch, last week and are still looking for a replacement. Caretaker manager Michael Skubala took charge again yesterday but Leeds will hope to name a permanent replacement soon because they are teetering on the very brink of the relegation zone. They play Everton next weekend.
Their fans did their best for them yesterday. The atmosphere was relentlessly, intensely, adversarial from the kick off. The visitors took it and it was met with a thunderous roar of derision. Maguire’s first long ball forward was repelled by a towering header from Robin Koch. That was greeted with a visceral shout of approval that seemed to come deep, deep from the stands.
Then Tyler Adams stopped Jadon Sancho, who was making his first start since October, in his tracks with an unforgiving but fair tackle. Sancho was catapulted into the air and another roar felt like it would crack the Yorkshire skies.
When Weston McKennie launched a well-timed sliding tackle that sent Tyrell Malacia flying, there was another roar, followed by hoots of derision when Malacia stayed down. Adams and McKennie were superb in midfield. Marsch may have gone but there is still American steel at this club.
There was even the occasional chance amid the mayhem. Leeds created the first opportunity when Wober hooked a ball from the goal line towards the near post. Patrick Bamford tried to help it on but failed to make contact. David de Gea only half cleared it and Crysencio Summerville rushed in sidefoot the loose ball just over the bar.
Leeds interim manager Michael Skubala saw his side produced a spirited performance but they were ultimately beaten
Crysencio Summerville produced a lively performance for Leeds but the talented prospect was unable to find the net
Soon, the bookings came. Firpo was shown a yellow card for another foul on Sancho, Fred was booked for a foul on Summerville, McKennie had his name taken for kicking Marcus Rashford up in the air. The crowd approved of all of it. ‘Get into them, **** them up,’ they roared again.
Bruno Fernandes wasted a rare opening by dragging his shot across goal after Sancho had played him in and at the other end, Harry Maguire, who was making a rare start, delayed too long on the ball and was dispossessed by Jack Harrison. Harrison raced in on goal but Maguire had the intelligence to anticipate him moving the ball back on to his left foot and he won the ball back.
De Gea made another mess of clearing a scooped shot from Summerville just before the interval but it was as the half edged into added time that it produced its first shot on target. It was a gift from Leeds. Wober tried to pass the ball out from the back but Fernandes blocked it and sprinted in on Ilhan Meslier. Fernandes steadied himself and tried to drill a low shot into the corner but Meslier deflected it to safety with his right boot.
Manchester United players, including captain Harry Maguire, celebrate after their victory against Leeds was confirmed
The pace did not drop after the break. De Gea saved well from Summerville, Ayling’s shot was deflected just wide by Shaw, Diogo Dalot crashed a piledriver off the face of the Leeds’ bar. The atmosphere had not calmed, either. When Fernandes went down after a grapple with Wober, the Leeds fans taunted him. ‘You’re just a soft, scum *******,’ they sang over and over again.
As the game moved into its closing stages, De Gea saved well to deny Summerville again but when the visitors broke forward ten minutes from time, they finally broke the deadlock. The ball was worked to Shaw on the left and he curled a brilliant cross into the box. Rashford had found space between Firpo and Wober and he rose to guide a precise header into the net. Meslier did not move.
Five minutes later, United doubled their lead. Wout Weghorst, who had had a peripheral role, played in Garnacho. Garnacho shaped to curl his shot around Meslier but caught him out by drilling it to the near post instead. Meslier got a hand to it but could only deflect it on to the woodwork and then watch it bounce over the line.
After the game, Skubala praised Ten Hag for the job he has done at United and ‘getting them fighting’. As for the United boss, he seemed surprised when he was asked about the hostility of the occasion. ‘I didn’t feel the hostility,’ he said. ‘It was a great ambience.’ Things have changed at Old Trafford. It’s been a long time coming but this manager and these players are up for the fight.
Wilfried Gnonto of Leeds battles for the ball with Diogo Dalot of Manchester United during the Premier League clash
MATCH FACTS
Leeds United: Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Wober, Firpo; McKennie (Greenwood 86), Adams; Summerville, Harrison (Aaronson 73), Gnonto; Bamford (Rutter 58)
Subs: Robles, Gyabi, Kristensen, Monteiro, Fernandez, Chilokoa-Mullen
Booked: Firpo, McKennie
Manchester United: De Gea; Dalot (Wan-Bissaka 73), Maguire, Shaw, Malacia (Martinez 61); Sabitzer, Fred; Sancho (Garnacho 61), Fernandes, Rashford (Elanga 90); Weghorst
Subs: Heaton, Varane, Lindelof, Pellistri, Iqbal
Goals: Rashford 80, Garnacho 85
Booked: Fred
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