On the 13th of september, when defending champions Liverpool hosted newly promoted Leeds United at Anfield, the match was highly anticipated to be a thrilling contest, and the match truly lived up to its expectations as a 7 goal show and late drama took place, eventually resulting in the Reds emerging victorious.
On the first matchday of the Premier League 2020-21 , Liverpool faced Bielsa’s Leeds at Anfield, the match was pre anticipated to be intense and thrilling both by the coaches and the players . this feeling was habitual as both teams had a really impressive style of play, as Bielsa’s team played with their Madcap style of play and Jurgen’s side with their heavy metal football.
As the match started, inside the first 3 minutes , Leeds conceded a penalty as Salah’s shot hit Koch’s arm. Salah didn’t fail to capitalise from the spot and scored Liverpool’s first goal of the season , to give them the lead. A Few minutes later, Leeds equalised courtesy of a cracking goal from Jack Harrison and in the process scored Leeds’ first Premier League goal in 16 years.
After that, the goals came thick and fast for both teams. Liverpool scored 2 more goals inside the the next 20 minutes as both Virgil and Salah scored , whereas Leeds scored 1, thanks to Van Djik’s lazy clearance and Bamford’s quick instincts. Thus the first half of the game ended 3-2, with Liverpool leading.
Then, in the 66th minute, Liverpool won the ball high up the pitch and made the most out of the opportunity as Mateusz Klich scored a breath taking volley, as Leeds equalized for the 3rd time in the game. After that , both teams were defending well in order to not concede in the dying moments of the game.
Inside the last ten minutes of the game, Liverpool started to press really high with great intent to score the winner. This high pressing eventually paid off in the 87th minute , when Rodrigo pinned down Fabinho inside the penalty box , awarding Liverpool a penalty and Salah made the most out of the opportunity and scored the winner for the Reds and completed his hat – trick as well . Consequently , the match ended 4-3 with Liverpool emerging victorious in an close and intense contest.
Even tough Liverpool won the match, but Bielsa and his team won the hearts of the fans as the gave a mesmerising performance at Anfield against the defending champions and were able to exploit a defence consisting of Van Djik , Robertson , Alexander-Arnold and Gomez, that too 3 times which is quite rarely seen against the present Liverpool side.
After watching the match and the way Leeds performed, one thing that we can say for sure is that the season would be really promising for Leeds and there will be plenty to watch for.
