Patrick Bamford scored one and created two goals as Leeds United ended Leicester City’s seven-match unbeaten run and denied Brendan Rodgers’ side a move up to second in the Premier League with an entertaining 3-1 victory on Sunday.
Leeds remain in 12th, behind Southampton on goal difference, while Leicester are third with 39 points — two points behind second-placed Manchester United who were held to a goalless draw at Arsenal on Saturday.
“It was a hard game,” Bamford said postmatch. “They’re a top team, their position in the table shows that. We had to concentrate the whole game and really fight for it.
“Today we showed we can compete [against the top six]. To get the three points is a great achievement and the boys should be proud of themselves.”
The home side opened the scoring in the 13th minute when Harvey Barnes charged through the midfield and exchanged passes with James Maddison before finding the bottom corner.
But their lead lasted only two minutes when Bamford spotted Stuart Dallas making a run into the box and slipped a ball through the defence for the midfielder to score the equaliser with a goal identical to Barnes’ opener.
The two sides had the ball in the net again by the half hour mark, courtesy of Ayoze Perez and Mateusz Klich, but they were both ruled out for offside.
Leeds took the lead with 20 minutes to go when Raphinha’s first-time through ball gave Bamford space to shoot and the English striker’s left-footed strike found the top corner for his 11th goal of the season.
With Leicester forced to pour men forward in search of an equaliser, Leeds scored a third from a counter-attack as Bamford sprinted into space before unselfishly squaring the ball for Jack Harrison to fire into an empty net.
“It’s a tough one to take, we know how Leeds play and it can end up as a basketball game,” Barnes said.
“We played some good football and we created good chances. The goals we are very disappointed with.”
ESPN
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