Leeds United’s 3-0 defeat of Champions League-bound Chelsea, in front of more than 36,000 Elland Road supporters, had nothing do with the hosts’ style or tactics. Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has scotched any notion the Whites deserved credit for their best home performance in more than 15 months and put it all down to the visitors’ errors.
Leeds opened the scoring after Brenden Aaronson’s pressing, which epitomised the hosts’ entire afternoon, forced Edouard Mendy into an error before Marc Roca’s run from deep drew a foul from Raheem Sterling, which then delivered a perfect free-kick from Jack Harison’s boot onto the head of Premier League top-scorer Rodrigo. At 2-0 down, Tuchel felt the day was pretty much done and it had nothing to do with Jesse Marsch’s management or the Leeds players’ input.
“We scored an own goal and gave an awfully cheap set-piece away and conceded from a set-piece,” said Tuchel. “This has simply nothing to do with pressing, simply nothing to do with running less kilometres and nothing to do with the style of Leeds.
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“We should not confuse these things. We were able to cope [with] that style, we were able to be the better team, we were able to be one [or] 2-0 ahead.
“We give an own goal away and the set-piece has nothing to do with anything. From there, of course then it's 2-0 and the belief is on top level and our body language from there, even in the 10 minutes before, was not like it was in the last match and that's how I felt.
“It’s surprising because you cannot be frustrated and if you play Leeds, mistakes happen. I don't see the connection we lost due to the style of Leeds.
“We knew what was coming, but the two goals that cost us the match have nothing to do with the style.”
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