Leeds United boss Daniel Farke rues missed chances and penalty that should have been as unbeaten league start is ended

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Daniel Farke was left to reflect on a frustrating afternoon when his Leeds United team were stifled by likely promotion rivals Burnley at Elland Road.

The Whites boss rued early missed chances and the denial of a stonewall penalty by referee James Bell, who had a poor game in many ways, as a single goal scored after just 18 minutes gave the visitors what could be a valuable three points come the end of the season.

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On the evidence of a second half when Leeds had all the ball, but created precious little it might not be United who are rivals to Burnley as their lack of a cutting edge was worrying for the weeks to come.

This was the first game they really missed the talents of sold players Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter as their play became too predictable and there was little off the bench to improve things.

Mateo Joseph's first minute golden chance for Leeds United against Burnley.Mateo Joseph's first minute golden chance for Leeds United against Burnley.
Mateo Joseph's first minute golden chance for Leeds United against Burnley.

Manager Farke believed his side should have been celebrating victory.

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He said: “It's the most frustrating thing in football when you go back to the dressing room and can hardly explain why you didn't win this game.

“After this difficult international break, just one session together, I didn't expect we would be that dominant. Really happy with our dominance, how we started on the front foot, dominated each and every statistic.

“The decisive moments we were not effective enough. We should have scored after two minutes, Mateo one on one, Willy Gnonto then eight yards out. We should have a penalty again.

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Ilia Gruev gets a shot in for Leeds United.Ilia Gruev gets a shot in for Leeds United.
Ilia Gruev gets a shot in for Leeds United.

“Many corners, but the only team who scores out of a corner is them, from a corner for us. Manor is there with the wrong decision, decided to turn around, didn't have to take this risk, he slipped and they were away with an 85-yard counter. Congratulations and credit to them for a good finish.

“When I compare how they scored and what we have created, we had better chances, easier chances to score and didn't take them. This is where we have to be self critical. I was disappointed to concede out of such a situation.”

On the increasingly frustrating second half, Farke added: “We could speak about we could have created some more good chances. The goalkeeper was there with some really good saves.

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“It's tricky because the second half was interrupted with many injuries, many substitutions and a bit of time wasting. Sometimes you have to score from a set-piece. We were there in good situations, close to the box.

Brenden Aaronson takes on Burnley's Josh Brownhill.Brenden Aaronson takes on Burnley's Josh Brownhill.
Brenden Aaronson takes on Burnley's Josh Brownhill.

“It's quite natural, they are invited to drop deeper and deeper, of course it's difficult. Many of our key players were feeling a bit more the load in the second half due to the international duties. We substitute some of them who are normally always on the pitch.”

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Leeds should have been ahead after just 47 seconds as Mateo Joseph superbly took the ball off defender Maxime Esteve on half-way and raced clear with only keeper James Trafford to beat, but sent his shot the wrong side of the post.

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In a cracking start to the game Hannibal headed wide at the other end after Joe Rodon was caught in possession then Ilia Gruev had a shot saved for the hosts.

Burnley centre-forward Zian Flemming twice looked threatening only for his tame efforts to be easily saved by Illan Meslier.

The match winning moment came from a home corner in the 18th minute. After it was half-cleared Manor Solomon slipped and Luca Koleosho raced 60 yards downfield to strike an angled shot past Meslier into the net.

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Another big chance came for the Whites soon after when Brenden Aaronson's through ball put Willy Gnonto clean through, but with just the keeper to beat his shot was too close to Trafford who made a decent save.

Former Leeds winger Jaidon Anthony sent a shot wide at the other end and defender Joe Worrall sent a near post header wide from a corner as Burnley continued to threatened up to the half-hour mark.

From this point, however, they concentrated more on keeping what they had got and did not manage another single effort on goal in the remaining 60 minutes plus nine minutes of added time.

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Time wasting became the order of the day and from being a great game it became tedious to watch.

Burnley were helped in their aim by a referee who rarely saw through the tactics, allowing goalkeeper Trafford to regularly take at least 30 seconds over everything he did.

And he gave the visitors a massive helping hand in the 36th minute when he seemed to be the only one in the ground not to see a blatant penalty when Solomon was tackled from behind inside the area. That would have been a foul even if Joe Worrall had won the ball, but replays showed he did not and somehow he got away with it.

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Farke can be expecting another letter of apology after this obvious error.

It seemed to effect Leeds who were not so threatening in the rest of the half aside from a poor Ethan Ampadu shot wide and a tame header wide by Pascal Struijk.

The second half was totally one-sided with Burnley rarely getting out of their own half. But the Whites did not make a clear chance.

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Gnonto saw a goalbound shot deflected wide by teammate Junior Firpo and the closest to a goal came when Joseph's well struck curling shot was saved at full stretch by Trafford.

The visitors' keeper tipped over an Ampadu shot and Gnonto sent a shot wide, but the game simply petered out with nothing of note apart from the 97th minute sending off of Burnley full-back Bashir Humphreys for a second bookable offence – too late to influence the result.

Burnley 1

(Koleosho 64)

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Championship

Leeds: Meslier; Bogle, Rodon (Tanaka 86), Struijk, Firpo (Byram 78); Ampadu (Rothwell 68), Gruev; Gnonto, Aaronson (Piroe 68), Solomon (Ramazani 78); Joseph.

Burnley: Trafford; Humphreys, Worrall, Esteve, Pires; Brownhill (Hountondji 90+1), Laurent; Koleosho (Sarmiento 64), Hannibal (Cullen 73), Anthony; Flemming (Massengo 90+1).

Referee: James Bell

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