Leeds Utd   4 (Tanaka 21, Gnonto 55, Ramazani 82,90+4)​

Bristol City   0                                     

 

28th April 2025. EFL Championship

36,310.

​Another scintillating performance from Leeds simply blew away the Robins – and remember, this Bristol team has a really good chance of making the playoffs and, who knows maybe joining Leeds in the Premier League next season! Crazy!

​

I think we can now understand how tension and pressure affect a team; once we had gone two goals up against Stoke, and right throughout this game with Bristol, Leeds looked suddenly unchained, free to express themselves without fear of making a season-defining mistake. The match stats from the two games are remarkably similar, and the domination was just as complete. We are seeing what this team of ours is really capable of, and it looks to have reached its peak just at the right time. “We’ll never win our last five games”, everyone said when it looked at one point as if that was what it would take to overhaul the Clarets and the Blades, but here we are, on the brink of doing just that and doing it in some special style. 

​

Right from the get-go last night, Leeds were positively sparkling, our press was as quick and forceful as ever when we were without the ball, while our footwork and movement with the ball was often sensational. As early as the first few minutes, we had both full-backs marauding upfield with Firpo setting up the first big chance of the night for Jayden Bogle. He fluffed the chance but would have been flagged offside anyway, having gone just too soon. It was the first of no less than 11 so-called big chances recorded by the stats people. That first chance was set up with a clever little through-ball by Joel Piroe and his play was sensational all night, his eye for a pass and clever footwork showing that, on his day, he is a quality footballer not just a goal-poacher.

Manor Solomon was on fire too and his was the next chance, put through one-on-one against the Robins’ keeper O’Leary by Brenden Aaronson. O’Leary made the first of 8 really good saves. Then Piroe again played an intricate one-two to get Aaronson behind the defence and again O’Leary saved, pushing the shot around the post for the corner from which Leeds opened the scoring.

Solomon swung the ball into the back post, Tanaka headed back across goal and a scramble ensued with Piroe being pulled back, The ball broke away again back to Solomon and this time his high cross found Tanaka now unmarked at that same back post as the whole Bristol defence had followed the ball. Tanaka finished with a deft half-volley low inside the post. 20 minutes gone,

Piroe was again the creator when a nice touch got Gruev free and his pass found Solomon again on the shoulder of his marker. He raced past his man but his low show was just about trapped between the legs of O’Leary. The attacks and chances were now non-stop. Bristol were clearly shell-shocked and their usually hard to beat defence was all over the place. Another corner found Tanaka winning the ball at that same back post but he put that one wide, should have scored. Then O’Leary made a stunning triple save as Gruev, Firpo, Aaronson, Piroe and Solomon combined down the left before Firpo shot – saved, Gnonto hit the rebound – saved, and then Jayden Bogle rifled the ball against the post with another helping hand by O’Leary. I guess it’s partly because we always give opposing keepers so much to do but they have often been world-class against us this season.

We surprisingly had to wait until the 55th minute for the second goal but it was worth waiting for. Tanaka touched the ball to Firpo who found Piroe in the inside left channel near halfway. Piroe turned and sent a glorious 35-yard diagonal left-foot pass bending in behind the defence and there was Willy Gnonto running onto it; one touch and a fine finish past O’Leary into the corner. It was champagne football from a team brim full of confidence and talent. The introduction of substitutes only added to our superiority for once as Bristol were clearly already thinking about their crunch game with Preston coming up. Largie Ramazani finally got his moments in the spotlight and didn’t he just lap them up? Junior Firpo sent the ball along the six-yard line and Largie stole in unseen behind his marker to finish for his first with his first touch of the game and then Ilia Gruev got in on the act playing a brilliant long high ball down the centre over the high Robins’ backline and Largie was onto it in a flash. The ball landed softly on his foot like a piece of floating silk and he rasped it low into the corner past O’Leary with his left foot. More back-flips followed as Largie grinned from ear-to-ear.

It was a quite stunning display from Leeds and it’s hard to think we can’t now complete the job by winning down at Plymouth if we can repeat this sort of display just one more time. “Farke football is boring” I remember folks saying earlier in the season! Well, we’ve scored 93 goals, 26 more than anyone else in the division (Norwich with 67) so I think we can consign that comment to the bin! And we’ve got a shot at achieving the dream 100 points. Is it beyond the realms of the believable to think we could get seven goals at Plymouth to hit the 100? Oh, I’m just getting carried away now.