It was a frustrating afternoon for Leeds United on Saturday as they failed to beat Portsmouth despite dominating the game from start to finish and still scoring three goals.
Pascal Struijk opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Dan James went down, but against the run of play, Portsmouth scored two goals before half-time to make it 2-1 to the newly-promoted side.
Wilfried Gnonto immediately made it 2-2 after the break, only for Portsmouth to score an injury-time penalty before Brenden Aaronson came off the bench to make it 3-3 in the 95th minute on his return.
Aaronson though went from zero to hero to zero, as the USA star missed a sitter to make it 4-3 with the clock edging closer to 100 minutes. A point, when it could have been a loss but should have been a win.
Richards gives his thoughts on Leeds after watching 3-3 draw
A poor result for Leeds, given they went into the game as large favourites especially with Leeds playing at home. Leeds could easily have scored double what they did, and should not have conceded three goals.
But it was a more encouraging start than last season even without the win, and Leeds fans can expect more high-octane football moving forward in Daniel Farke’s pursuit of promotion in his season campaign.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Micah Richards gave his verdict on Leeds and whether Leeds will earn promotion this season having “watched” Farke’s men in action against John Mousinho’s side.
“I think Leeds. The way Leeds play is aggressive, it’s very attacking. I watched the highlights of the game yesterday and they dominated early parts and then they just give away, sloppy, sloppy goals,” he said.
“They had a chance to win it and make it 4-3 with the last kick of the game, Aaronson went one on one with the goalkeeper and slotted it wide. If Leeds can stop the rot at the back, I think Leeds will do it.”
Even Joe Rodon made mistakes as Leeds struggled defensively
Farke fielded a back four that saw new signing Jayden Bogle start on the right, with Joe Rodon and Struijk in the middle and Junior Firpo on the left. Two very attacking full-backs, and ball-playing centre-backs.
His poor header back into a dangerous area saw Callum Lang score a second for Portsmouth. Bogle did not enjoy his best game, making a number of defensive mistakes though did impress moving forward.
It could be put down to early-season sloppiness, while Leeds did only conceded a handful of chances. Something which is always going to happen given the style of football, perhaps a slice of luck is needed.
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