Master beats apprentice in Leeds v City upset

With a friendship dating back over a decade and continual effusive praise of each other in the press, Marcelo Bielsa met Pep Guardiola in action for the fifth time today, yet to record a win against his former apprentice.

The Action: Unlike October’s end-to-end slogfest between the sides at Elland Road, Bielsa decided to try and limit City in the opening stages of the game, containing their opponents for the first half, not allowing them a single shot on target.

And with minutes left of the opening 45, City’s defence were slow to react to some harmless-looking link-up play between Helder Costa and Patrick Bamford, before Stuart Dallas latched on to Bamford’s assist in an instant, firing home from distance.

But just when Leeds thought they had the upper hand going into the break, City were quickly given a second-half advantage when captain Liam Cooper received a straight red for a high boot into Gabriel Jesus’ knee.

With an extra man, City began creating far better chances in the second half, seeing John Stones and Bernardo Silva going incredibly close, but it was left to the lesser-spotted Ferran Torres to glance home with 15 minutes to play, putting City on course for victory.

However, despite being a man down against the league’s runaway leaders, Leeds weren’t happy with a point, and were close to taking all three before a sublime Ederson tackle thwarted a one-on-one against Raphinha.

But into stoppage time, out of nowhere came Dallas once again, capitalising on some more poor City defending, latching onto a gorgeous Ezgjan Alioski through-ball, before carrying it past a struggling John Stones and slotting it through Ederson’s legs for a massively impressive win.

The Big Picture: City will undoubtedly breeze to the title, but showed how creaky their defence can be without Ruben Dias shoring it up. The bigger problem though in a Champions League context is Leeds showed what many sides did against City earlier in the season, survive 20 minutes of pressure and you’ll often be given a big chance.

Man of the Match: Stuart Dallas. Not much else needs to be said. An excellent team performance but his clinical finishing was the difference.

Moment of the Match: The winner was pure class from Dallas, and capped off one of the most impressive performances during Bielsa’s tenure.

Expected Goals: Man City (2.24) 1-2 (0.23) Leeds