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Half-time reading
Half time: Leeds 1-1 Crystal Palace
It’s all square after an interesting first half at Elland Road. Patrick Bamford gave Leeds a deserved lead with an expert header, but Palace – helped by some excellent goalkeeping from Sam Johnstone – stayed in the game and equalised on the stroke of half-time through Marc Guehi.
Eze’s free-kick from the right hit the shoulder of Schlupp, who missed an attempted header, and looped into the six-yard box. Guehi reacted really smartly to beat the diving Meslier to the ball and cushion a volley into the net. There’s a VAR check for offside, but he’s fine and the goal stands.
GOAL! Leeds 1-1 Crystal Palace (Guehi 45+1)
Palace have been a threat at set-pieces, and now they’re level.
44 min Firpo is booked for a foul on Olise, who curls the resulting free-kick straight down Meslier’s throat.
43 min “I agree that Leeds are fun,” says Kári Tulinius. “They aren’t the what-am-I-even-seeing psychedelic spectacle of the Bielsa years, but neither are they the I-have-had-too-much-coffee stomach churning Marsch experience. Gracia has managed to retain the directness in attack with a more measured approach to defending.”
42 min Olise runs onto a neat return pass from Eze but then, under pressure from a defender, pokes tamely through to Meslier. Wasn’t much of a chance.
40 min: Another good save by Johnstone! Aaronson’s excellent free-kick from deep on the right is met by Struijk at the near post, 12 yards out. His flicked header – not dissimilar to Bamford’s goal – is pawed away to his right by the diving Johnstone.
38 min Johnstone dashes from his line to beat Sinisterra to Roca’s clever scooped pass.
37 min The impressive Aaronson finds space between the lines and gives the ball to Harrison. His cross is booted clear. To be honest this entry is just an excuse to point out that Aaronson has played really well as the No10.
34 min Olise’s outswinging corner is headed across goal and just wide by Guehi. That was a pretty decent chance, though he had to fight to get to the ball ahead of Koch.
33 min Eze flicks a nice pass through to Edouard in the inside-left channel. His shot is blocked by Koch – a real-life Koch block – and then Schlupp wins a corner.
32 min It’s a more even game now, and actually Palace have had slightly more of the ball in this first half. But the shots on target tell a more accurate story: Leeds 6-1 Palace.
31 min “Bamford celebrations,” begins Jeremy Boyce. “I think that they are all overjoyed that he’s finally scored a ‘proper’ goal, not a pen, or something that went in off his arse. The only way is up!”
Yeah, I think I got a bit carried away, though it was still a well-worked goal. And you’d have to be quite the Livia Soprano figure not to wish Bamford well.
29 min The resulting corner is met by Koch near the penalty spot, and his header is comfortably held by the falling Johnstone.
29 min: Good save by Johnstone! Harrison whips the free-kick towards the far corner, and Johnstone flies to his right to make an excellent fingertip save. He really is far too good to be a back-up keeper.
28 min Firpo is fouled just outside the area by Doucoure. The free-kick is to the right of centre – don’t ask me what Firpo was doing there – and therefore perfect for Jack Harrison.
26 min: Off the line by McKennie! The next corner is punched away unconvincingly by Meslier towards the penalty spot. Ayew heads it back towards goal and McKennie kicks clear from inside the six-yard box. There was a defender behind him, though I’m not certain he would have cleared it.
25 min: Schlupp hits the post! My word, how did that not go in. Olise curled a superb inswinging corner from the right into the six-yard box. It dipped onto the head of Schlupp, who saw it late and mistimed a header that bounced onto the inside of the near post.
24 min “Is it worth asking why we expect VAR to work already?”says Robert Smithson. “It’s barely five years old. Per Wilson passim, it took arguably 142 years to make the offiside law one that improved the game as a spectacle. Obviously it’s easier to say this when it’s not my team being shafted (since I don’t support a club side any more) but I don’t think it’s impossible that within another 10 years there’s a system in place that works in all but a handful of edge cases... As an aside, the reason I don’t support a team is because I was a PSG fan and then after the QSI buyout I found that I didn’t care any more - if Qatar buys United and you find yourself in a similar boat please write about it.”
My biggest objection to VAR is what it does to the game as a spectacle rather than the number of errors, though I might be in a minority on that. The moment when Scotland qualified for Euro 2020, and what should have been the most euphoric 10 seconds of David Marshall’s life were instead spent waiting for approval from a jobsworth, symbolised everything I dislike about it. Anyway, let’s talk about something more positive. Leeds are playing; Leeds are fun.
23 min Leeds fully deserve to be ahead; they’ve started the match superbly.
How they enjoyed that one. Aaronson swung an outswinging corner towards the near post, where Bamford ran off Mitchell and steered a masterful header into the net via the far post.
The gleeful manner in which Bamford celebrated with the coaching stuff suggests that was a planned routine – nothing especially groundbreaking, but very effective. Bamford started at the far post, then suddenly darted away from Mitchel and into space. Aaronson picked him out, and Bamford did the needful.
GOAL! Leeds 1-0 Crystal Palace (Bamford 21)
A classic quite good training-ground routine from Leeds!
19 min A quiet few minutes.
16 min “Does the EPL have more controversies than the other top leagues in Europe and South America?” says Desmond Dorman. “Seems so to me. If the PGMOL continues to issue apologies at the present rate, the league could lose credibility.”
It does feel like VAR is more of a shambles in England, but that might just be because we spend most of our time focussing on this league.
15 min It’s been a pulsating start from Leeds, who are getting a lot of joy in wide positions.
13 min: Chance for Leeds! Ayling puts over a brilliant cross from the right towards Sinisterra, who gets in front of Ward but mistimes his stooping header. The ball, which was going wide, hits Ward and flies straight at Johnstone.
13 min After good play from Harrison, Aaronson’s very deep cross is headed straight at Johnstone by Sinisterra.
12 min Palace played some scintillating stuff against Leicester last week. We haven’t seen any of that yet, mainly because they haven’t had much of the ball.
10 min It’s easy to think of Javi Gracia as just another ex-Watford manager, but he actually did really well there and his overall record is excellent. With each passing week, he looks an increasingly shrewd appointment by Leeds.
9 min “I have an idea,” writes Chashuman. “Every time VAR makes a clear and obvious error, it gets a yellow card. Two yellows in a week equals a red. A red equals VAR being suspended for a week of fixtures. Then for one blessed week everybody can go back to spilling their drink in joy/apoplectic fury without having to worry about sponging it up and squeezing it back into the glass.”
8 min And now Bamford shoots not far wide from distance.
7 min Sinisterra wallops a long-range drive that is punched away by Johnstone. A comfortable save.
6 min: Fine save by Johnstone! Leeds have started superbly here. Firpo runs onto a return pass from Sinisterra and cuts the ball back towards Aaronson at the near post. He improvises a flicked shot behind his standing leg that is superbly saved by Johnstone, plunging low to his left. He showed great reactions there.
3 min “Leeds fan in south of France here,” says Jeremy Boyce. “Good to see the sun’s out at Fortress Elland, was Roy just having his after lunch nap there? Like a horse, standing up? The Peacocks seem to have got some mojo back under Javi, today could be key in their pursuit of points, it’s all looking better since Mr Skinny Pants left, three points today could make all the difference. Looks like the going is good, so let’s get going!”
2 min: Just wide from Sinisterra! An early chance for Leeds. Ayling’s cross from the right was sliced wretchedly by Guehi on the edge of the box. The ball ran across the area to Sinisterra, who took a touch and whistled a low drive back across goal that went this far wide.
2 min “Hallo Rob,” says Shane O’Leary. “I think that my VAR wheeze could restore real-time action to the game, save Simon’s drink and, almost certainly save humanity. We just link the VAR gubbins to an AI gizmo. Super speed computing has the goal confirmed or denied before Simon has left his seat and, in due course, the VAR linked AI will infect all of its cybernetic chums. Naturally, a footy obsessed AI community will be too busy checking the football results arguing amongst themselves and emailing you to exterminate human life. You can thank me later.”
Did you ask ChatGPT how to fix VAR?
1 min After a minute’s applause in memory of Chris Loftus and Kevin Speight, who died while supporting Leeds in Istanbul 23 years ago, Crystal Palace get the match under way.
The players are in the tunnel. Let’s have a reminder of the teams.
Leeds (4-2-3-1) Meslier; Ayling, Koch, Struijk, Firpo; McKennie, Roca; Harrison, Aaronson, Sinisterra; Bamford.
Substitutes: Robles, Cooper, Forshaw, Kristensen, Summerville, Greenwood, Georginio, Rodrigo, Gnonto.
Crystal Palace (4-1-4-1) Johnstone; Ward, Andersen, Guehi, Mitchell; Doucoure; Olise, Eze, Schlupp, Ayew; Edouard.
Substitutes: Whitworth, Tomkins, Clyne, Riedewald, Milivojevic, McArthur, Hughes, Lokonga, Mateta.
Referee Simon Hooper.
Previously on…
This was the year Palace finished third in the old Division One. It helped having Ian Wright up front, though there was more to the team than his goals. And Steve Coppell was such a smart manager – when they won at Nottingham Forest, he countered the threat of midfield runners like Roy Keane, Steve Hodge and Garry Parker by playing two sweepers. I’d love to see a full video of that game.
“VAR,” says Simon Dunsby. “We are still having exactly the same conversations. It’s just now we are disagreeing with two or three people who have looked at it in slow motion and made probably the wrong decision, rather than one person who has looked at it in real time and probably made the wrong decision. And whenever a goal is scored you can’t really celebrate, you have to wait for the flipping check to be done. You don’t even get to save your drink as there’s still the initial celebrations that spill it, but your drink doesn’t get reinstated when the goal gets cancelled. It’s a farce.”
I think the most succinct argument against VAR came from Kenny Cunningham on Off the Ball: “Has it improved football as a spectacle?” The answer – clear and obvious – is no. But it enhances the reality TV culture of modern football, so there’s no chance of it being put back in its box. We’re stuck with it – and stuck with it in an imperfect form, because there’s no easy fix.
Oh VAR, so much to answer for
Team news
Leeds are unchanged. Palace make two changes, both enforced: Sam Johnstone and Jordan Ayew replace the injured pair of Vicente Guaita and Wilfried Zaha. Johnstone is making his Premier League debut for Palace.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Leeds v Crystal Palace at Elland Road. Both sides are excellent adverts for the healing power of three points. The world looks a better place for both teams after wins over Nottingham Forest and Leicester in their most recent game, and for the first time in a while they are looking up rather than down.
Javi Gracia has quietly stabilised Leeds, taking 10 points from six games as manager, and Roy Hodgson’s return to Palace had the desired effect when they beat Leicester last weekend. A win for either side today would put them top of the table – the nine-team relegation mini-league, that is. But 12th sure beats 19th, which is where Leeds were three weeks ago.
Kick off 2pm.
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