Leeds United 5-0 Stoke City
Leeds United returned back to the top of the Championship in style with a sublime performance over Stoke City yesterday.
In the run up to the game, all the talk was about Brentford chasing us down. However, not once did Leeds looked phased or pressurised and we took control in what was arguably one of our finest performances of the season.
From the offset Leeds looked confident, Tyler Roberts going close with just 30 seconds on the clock, forcing Jack Butland to look lively in goal to keep the scores level.
Stoke came with the game plan to sit deep and defend in numbers, but the strength in numbers scenario failed to pay dividends with Leeds outclassing Stoke in every way possible.
The breakthrough coming just before half time, with Helder Costa winning a penalty after been brought down by Tommy Smith in the box. Mateusz Klich stepping up to make it 1-0 in his 95th consecutive start.
This forced Stoke to change tactics in the second half, they had to push forward but that simply opened up for Leeds to tear them apart.
Pablo Hernandez was introduced at half time and it took only 2 minutes for him to work his magic as he set up Helder Costa. After putting pen to paper this week with a four year contract it was good to see Costa on the scoresheet again.
We got into our stride and Stoke had no answer, Liam Cooper making it 3-0, again thanks to some brilliant play from Pablo.
By this point we knew it was game over, the question was by how many?
After some simply sensational play from Leeds and the classic Bielsa ball coming to fruition, Hernandez made it 4-0.
Leeds wanted more and a strike from Patrick Bamford ensured a fifth.
With 71% possession and 535 passes this was the dominant performance we had all hoped for and one which edges us ever closer to our Premier League return.
It feels surreal to talk of Leeds United potentially gaining promotion within a few games time or even next week, but this is the case.
Our time to return to the Premier League has come.
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