Leeds United 1-0 Sheffield Wednesday: Jack Harrison strike moves Marcelo Bielsa's men three points clear in second
Jack Harrison hit the winner as Leeds beat Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 to open up a three-point cushion on Sheffield United in the race for the Premier League.
Harrison produced a deadly finish in the 65th minute to finally break the deadlock after Wednesday had frustrated their Yorkshire rivals.
The Whites had been denied by two wonder saves from visiting goalkeeper Keiren Westwood during a dominant first half.
United were also left counting the cost of some wayward finishing, with Patrick Bamford in particular having an off-day.
But the relentless pressure finally paid off when Harrison fired home. Westwood had to be at his very best to keep out a Tyler Roberts header after 13 minutes as the home side started to find their stride.
Gary Hooper could only hit the side-netting before Adam Reach had a shot blocked minutes later as Kiko Casilla failed to deal with Barry Bannan's free-kick. Egzjan Alioski blazed over under pressure from Westwood, before Roberts flashed an effort inches wide.
Casilla pushed Bannan's curling effort around the post with a brilliant one-handed save in the 25th minute.
Harrison was the next to be denied by a superb save from Westwood when he had a header turned behind for a corner. Hooper cleared Luke Ayling's shot off the line from the resulting corner, before Pablo Hernandez headed over.
Westwood beat an effort away from Roberts four minutes later as Leeds continued to push hard. Bamford nodded wide at the second attempt from a Roberts pass before Pontus Jansson glanced a free header over just after the restart.
⚽️ @LUFC had 2️⃣8️⃣ attempts against @swfc, their most in a @SkyBetChamp game this season, overtaking their previous best of 2️⃣5️⃣ shots from the reverse fixture at Hillsborough in September pic.twitter.com/4fT1cP1Kcv
— Sky Sports Statto (@SkySportsStatto) April 13, 2019
Roberts fired wide after a good turn created an opening and then Alioksi fired over. Bamford should have opened the scoring when he somehow dragged an effort wide of the near post with the goal begging.
It was his last act as Marcelo Bielsa brought on Kemar Roofe in a bid to finally break the deadlock. And it finally came when Harrison clinically put away Hernandez's pass after 65 minutes.
Hernandez fired wide from a narrow angle five minutes later, before Tom Lees produced a vital block to keep out a Mateusz Klich effort as Leeds looked to wrap the game up.
Roberts blazed over before Roofe had a goal disallowed for offside. Marco Matias could only find the side-netting in the 89th minute as Leeds sealed three crucial points.
Bielsa keeping calm
Leeds manager Marcelo Bielsa is refusing to get carried away with the win. Sheffield Wednesday, who offered little in the way of danger, could have rescued an unlikely point with a minute to go when Marco Matias hit the side netting.
Bielsa said: "A three point lead is not a big difference even at this stage. Things are positive for us right now, but we need to just stay calm and to keep our focus.
"There are still important games to do and the job is not done. We were very good in defence and very good in attack today, it was a very pleasing performance.
"We created loads of chances, but we need to be more efficient and take more of those chances. We could have made it more comfortable today.
"We deserved to win the game the game. I thought Gaetano Berardi did excellent with stepping in so late after Liam Cooper got injured.
"He did well and the subs did well when they came on and I am delighted. We did not have to change or imbalance the team. It was an excellent team display today and I am very pleased."
Wednesday boss Steve Bruce admitted that his side did not deserve anything from the game.
"The better team won, we found it a struggle but we stuck at it," he said.
"We found it difficult and gave the ball away far too often. The intensity they played at was hard to deal with, they look a good bet to go up.
"Sometimes you take it on the chin and the better team won here.
"We understand where we're at, the imbalance in the squad and the injuries.
"We have a big summer ahead where we want to get it right. It's going to be difficult now but we can't give up, we have four games to play and we must give those everything we have.
"If we had have nicked something, we'd have had to hold our hands up. I can't ask for anything more than what we have got out of the players. We saw their resilience today, you won't see a better save than that from Westwood in the first half."
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