Leeds United beat Burnley on penalties after tense match of late dramas

Penalty shootouts do not have a monopoly on cup tie excitement. Leeds United needed one to dispose of Premier League Burnley but what went before in a hectic end to the initial 90 minutes was far more memorable than the lifeless extra time and arbitrary conclusion that followed.
For the record Stuart Dallas held his nerve to put Leeds through with the final spot-kick after the Burnley captain, James Tarkowski, had seen his effort saved by Andy Lonergan, but the tie only progressed that far thanks to two earlier penalties in a bewildering flurry of action at the end of normal time. Chris Wood was always likely to score against his former club when the Carabao Cup brought these sides together. What was less easy to predict was that his 88th-minute penalty would be relegated to a mere footnote in a night of late drama that brought four goals in the final 20 minutes.
First Leeds looked like winning when Hadi Sacko ran through to plant a low shot past Nick Pope. Then came Wood’s moment, his penalty apparently earning Burnley an extra half hour after Gaetano Berardi was adjudged to have fouled Kevin Long. Extra time was eventually necessary, but only after two more goals in a six minute period of stoppage time. Leeds must have thought they had won all over again when Tarkowski was penalised for a shirt pull and Pablo Hernández tucked away another penalty, yet in the three minutes that remained there was still time for Robbie Brady to bring the scores back level with an unstoppable free-kick.
Leeds could have been forgiven for feeling deflated at that point, but despite being outplayed for much of the game they kept going to achieve a famous victory.
The visitors could have taken an early lead when a path to goal opened up for Jay-Roy Grot, but with Pope exposed the striker made life easy for the goalkeeper with the tamest of shots. Considering they made nine changes from their starting line-up at Millwall at the weekend Leeds made a confident start, defending capably and allowing Burnley little time on the ball. Making his first start in Lancashire since his acrimonious Elland Road departure Charlie Taylor naturally took some stick from the travelling supporters, though the boos from the away end almost dried up mid-way through the first half when the left back found space for a cross that Ashley Barnes was close to tucking away. Wood would have come in for similar treatment but for starting on the bench. When the former Leeds striker emerged to warm up the Yorkshire contingent wittily adapted a chant to reflect the fact that there might now be “two greedy bastards”.
Greedy or not, Taylor continued to make inroads down the left, and with both Barnes and Sam Vokes playing it was a surprise Burnley could not take greater advantage of a string of first-half crosses. A well-flighted free-kick from Johann Berg Gudmundsson almost did the trick five minutes from the interval, only for Kevin Long to head narrowly wide after finding space behind his markers to meet the cross. The best chance of a goal before half time came shortly after that, when Scott Arfield picked out Vokes at the end of a patient passing move but could only manage a shot from the six-yard line that bobbled harmlessly past a post from the return pass. Barnes drifted in to meet a Gudmundsson cross at the end of the half and again failed to hit the target, leaving Burnley to turn around well ahead on chances created yet dissatisfied with their inability to make an impression on the Championship leaders.
Burnley sent on Wood with Brady with 20 minutes remaining, just after seeing Phil Bardsley skim an upright with a cross-cum-shot. Wood did manage to conjure a shooting opportunity for Brady, which the Burnley substitute fired too high, though it was the changes made by Thomas Christiansen that ended up breaking the deadlock. Sacko had already shown his ability by bamboozling Taylor when he came on for the last half hour, and when fellow substitute Hernández played him into space with an exquisite long pass after a Burnley attack broke down the French winger showed enormous composure in running on to beat Pope with a decisive finish. After 77 scoreless minutes it appeared a single goal of such quality might settle the contest; in fact nothing could have been further from the truth, but 11 ‘goals’ later Leeds were in the fourth round.

SOURCE : GUARDIAN SPORTS
posted by CAMPUS94