For the past eight days, Leeds have been on a mini-break from the second tier and all that comes with it. According to Daniel Farke, the meeting with Leicester City at Elland Road was the closest to a Premier League game this season. And it was good preparation for meeting a real Premier League opponent a few days later when they travel to Chelsea in the FA Cup. The teams that participated in these matches played refreshing football. Some players showed that they are on a technical level that was eye-catching.Then Huddersfield, where the bubble burst and Leeds were pulled, were dragged and kicked back into Championship reality with a 1-1 draw. When the season ends, however it ends for Leeds, there are games nobody wants to relive and this was a prime candidate..
There can be no real surprise when a team fighting for its life at the end of the championship shows up ready for scrap. And to Farke’s credit, he arrived at the post-match press conference with no desire to complain about Huddersfield’s physical approach to the game or how it was managed. Because no matter how many mistakes there were or how slowly the referees came together, it should have been enough for Leeds to win this game and it could have been so different. After almost completely dominating the visitors in the first four minutes, Willy Gnonto found Glen Kamara with a shot in front of goal and instead opted to pass before Crysencio Summerville’s potential effort was denied..
Nor can it be a real surprise that in another hectic season, with an early start and a team prepared to do anything to get a result, Leeds finished with a result that fell nine games short of the set standards. winning streak What makes it more forgivable is a 28-point lift from a possible 30, and an unbeaten league run in 2024 that remains. And let’s face it, it wasn’t far from typical Leeds. If the quick and forced way they attacke
d for too much of the game was a familiar theme, they wouldn’t have built such a large lead at Leicester since the turn of the year. Also, on the day the Foxes lost, Leeds didn’t.But it was still a pig and a performance that never looked quite right. Huddersfield were allowed to grow in confidence after Kamara and Summerville failed to score and Illan Meslier soon tested Jack Rudo twice. But instead of building momentum, the hosts showed a greater interest in taking anything and any pac
e out of the game with persistent and sometimes brutal breakdowns. Jonathan Hogg brutally felled Summerville, injuring his team-mate Yuta Nakayama in the process, and may have been lucky to only see yellow. Matty Pearson caught Willy Gnonton more with a body kick than a challenge and after avoiding a warning he was free to rake Summerville with shin studs. It deserved a yellow rather than a red.Leeds’ reaction to the corporal punishment was understandable but not what was required as referee Andrew Kitchen continued to show the odd leniency. Patrick Bamford left one for Rudon, who was annoyed by everything Gnonto said about him. And then Gnonto’s own defensive third was clumsily botched, conceding the free-kick that put Huddersfield ahead. Pearson rose above Ethan Ampadu and although Meslier held on, Michał Helik was the first to react to find the goal..
