Five players injured in less than an hour, 22 minutes added, a controversial red card, a spectacular comeback and a winning goal in the last minute.
Leeds’ Premier League trip to Wolves on Friday had it all.
It was a tough, breathless and brilliant game that Wolves seemed almost certain to win when they took a 2-0 lead in the 11th minute of first-half stoppage time.
But Leeds, who had lost four players to injury in the 55th minute, including newly returned Patrick Bamford, had other ideas.
‘These decisions are killing teams’
The key moment came five minutes after half-time when the booked Raúl Jiménez ran forward to try and reach for a through ball and was involved in what looked like a 50-50 collision with Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier.
Meslier limped off but he wasn’t alone: When Jimenez got up a couple of minutes after receiving treatment, referee Kevin Friend showed him a second yellow card.
“Everyone saw what happened and now they have the chance to see it on TV,” Wolves boss Bruno Lage told BBC Sport.
“It’s body contact – Raúl tried to win the ball. Bad decision [from the referee] – and followed up with the opinion that he made a good decision
“In the 45 minutes I think we were the best team. We were a much better team than our opponents. I am very proud of my players.”
Wolves captain Conor Coady told Sky Sports: “We should still stay in the game but it’s not a red card. I could go crazy and kick but for me it’s not a red. It’s a fair challenge, there wasn’t somewhere else I could go.” These decisions are killing teams.
“I thought from the first minute he got yellow and I thought he lost the game. We don’t feel like we were treated fairly.”
“We look first of all at ourselves because we can defend better. But the others also have to look at themselves.”
“It’s a huge factor in what’s happened.”
Leeds ‘doesn’t survive but thrives’
When Jesse Marsch was appointed Leeds manager on February 28 to replace the popular Marcelo Bielsa, the Whites had lost four games in a row by an aggregate score of 17-2 and were only going one way, towards the last three.
Two more losses followed and a six-match losing streak meant the American manager faced a daunting challenge.
But victory over Norwich and 3-2 success at Wolves means they now find themselves seven points clear of the bottom three. It may not be safe yet, but certainly with room to breathe.
His second-half performance at Molineux (goals by Jack Harrison, Rodrigo and stoppage-time match winner Luke Ayling) led to rave scenes at the end.
“We were down but we came out in the second half and showed a bit of character – the man sent off is a huge game-changer and the boys dug in,” Ayling told Sky Sports. “That’s a massive three points. The guys are buzzing.
“As soon as the red card came, he gave us a proper boost and then we scored shortly after. Then we got the second, but after that we deflated a little bit and tried to go a little too fast. But we got the goal at the end – it was just bypass it and smash it as fast as you can.
“I tried to do the Robbie Keane celebration, but I couldn’t land the cartwheel, which was a bit disappointing. I’ll have to work on that!”
Marsch’s side have now won their last two games thanks to injury-time winners, meaning the manager can look forward to a two-week international break with renewed optimism.
“We have an amazing group of young guys on this team,” he said. “I was impressed from day one with the quality of this club and I am certainly very proud of what we have achieved so far.
“We have talked from the beginning of not only surviving but thriving. Being aggressive in our game, playing with intensity and we have tried.
“We had a talk about it and three of the four halves we’ve played since that talk have gone really well. There’s still a lot of work to do. We’re happy right now, but we know the job isn’t done.” “
The international break will also mean Leeds’ four injured players – Bamford, Meslier, Mateusz Klich and Diego Llorente – will have extra time to recover.
Bamford, who has missed much of the season with injury, seemed heartbroken when he left but Marsch was upbeat about his prognosis.
“I think Patrick was fine,” he told BBC Sport. “I was just disappointed because he wanted to help the team a lot. I could see after 15-20 minutes that he was struggling. We had already talked about what we would do and that we would make the change.”
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