Well this was a thriller and then some! I expected Leeds to give our defence trouble, but I couldn’t see us shipping three goals in our opening fixture.
The Premier League champions against Championship league winners, it looked promising when the fixture ist became public, but honestly, this gung ho battle was not on the cards, even though both Kloppo and Bielsa are total football maniacs.
I liked how we started, with Naby lad driving into the box to create an early chance. So glad to see him thriving in the starting eleven and finally blossoming into the layer we paid big money for all these years ago. The first goal didn’t take long, as Mo Salah got a pen for shooting it straight into Koch’s hand. He confidently converts the penalty after his signature long run up.
We have a flying start, controlling the ball amazingly. Helder Costa scores from offside, but overall, the early minutes looked very promising until Leeds decided to show why they got promoted. Trent lost his flank completely, and Harrison cut inside to score a beauty of a goal, leaving all our defenders powerless to stop the equalizer.
Sadio tries to right all the wrongs, but overthinks it and misses a good chance. He scores from distance after some good pressure from Robbo, but this goal is also ruled out for offside. Don’t sweat it though, because Big Virg easily puts us back in front with a powerful header! The keeper caught the ball, but only behind the line. Very fun start, it’s an end to end game, and soon enough it’s level once again! Uncharacteristically bad play from Van Dijk, who got robbed by Patrick Bamford. He had some similar mistakes last season, hopefully that’s not a trend the Dutchman will follow.
This wild ride keeps swinging back and forth, and Salah gets his second with a super volley into the top bins! 3-2, and the match timer goes backwards. Shit’s insane… Bielsa once said they study their opponents to attack, and not defend, and that couldn’t be any closer to the absolute truth. Leeds are fun, but they won’t have many clean sheets this season if they keep such a high line. Speaking of defence, Leeds just highlighted the issues that were lingering the Reds for some time now.
Second half gets a bit more steady, but there is this worrisome moment from Trent where he scores in his own goal after Alisson is chipped. I don’t know what that was, but I’m glad nothing resulted from this bizarre moment. Keita is off at 59th minute, and Rodrigo steps in for Leeds. Hendo off on 65th, Curtis Jones, the promising youngsters gets a lot of minutes tonight. After some changes on the field, the scoreline also changes to 3-3. Klich runs into the box late and scores a good goal, celebrating and laughing so much that he gets subbed. Well, maybe I imagined that. Mo almost gets a hatty, but skiles a volley…
Vrg scores his second, but it is ruled out for some stupid foul. I was getting anxious, but I also felt that this match had one more crazy moment in it, and that was the right idea, as Fabinho got slammed in the box by the record transfer Rodrigo. A debut to forget for the spanish forward, and it’s Mo Salah who takes the ball and seeks to give us our forth lead… GOAL! Hat-trick in the first gameweek, not too Xabi Alonso.
Trent had his worst game ever probably, but Salah entered God mode today and pulled off a miracle. This was some heavy metal football, and I found a lot of respect for the opponents. It wouldn’t be the case if we drew with them though! Bielsa is a character, and this league needs guys like him to be even better. First three points, and a crazy bout to boot. Let’s go!
Man of the Match is of course Mohamed Salah.
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