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Bielsa hails ‘important point’ as Leeds lucky to escape defeat at Brighton

Marcelo Bielsa Leeds

Marcelo Bielsa is happy Leeds United picked up an ‘important point’ against Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

The Whites were outplayed on the road as Graham Potter’s side had multiple good chances to score. Neal Maupay missed a golden opportunity eight minutes in, before Leandro Trossard had a shot tipped onto the post by Illan Meslier.

Maupay would go on to miss another glaring chance as Leeds flirted with danger. They got lucky as Brighton could not find the back of the net, keeping the score at 0-0.

The draw puts Leeds on 12 points from 13 games. They could drop into the relegation zone on Sunday if Burnley overcome Tottenham at Turf Moor.

During a post-match interview with BBC Match of the Day, Bielsa reflected on his team’s lacklustre performance. “The point is an important point for us, in the first half the differences were big in their favour,” the tactician said. “And in the second half it was more even, there was alternate dominance and similar chances. After a lull first half, to have evened the game, we value it.

“In the first half we were in conditions to play like we did in the second half, the structure of the team was the same.

“The changes we managed for them to lose confidence when they played out from the back. The duels, we evened them up, we improved the recovery of the ball – it’s not that nothing changed!”

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Leeds midfielder Adam Forshaw, who is firmly back in the side after suffering a serious injury in 2019, said his team ‘will keep going’.

“It wasn’t our best game but if you break it down it is a clean sheet away from home and another point on the board, so there are positives.

“Second half, we went long a bit more than we do as a team, maybe a little bit safe at times. You are not going to play well every week, so we will take it.

“We have had long-term injuries so they are not going to come in firing on all cylinders, but lads are close to getting back fit and we have the quality to put a run of games together.

“We train really hard, believe in our ethos and will keep going.”

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