Daniel Farke had no complaints with his side's performance after their 2-1 defeat to Arsenal at The Emirates.
The Whites hit the front in the second half with a fine James Justin strike. Goals from Riccardo Calafiori and Bruno Guimarães swung the game back in the Premier League champions' favour by the 70-minute mark.
It was a different game to the Whites' last trip to The Emirates. Leeds went down the tunnel at half-time locked at 0-0 but having held more of a threat, albeit from less time in possession. David Raya was forced into decent saves either side of half-time by Gabriel Gudmundsson and Ao Tanaka, while James Trafford was rarely troubled in the away goal.
Justin's fierce strike, from Gudmundsson's cross, opened the scoring and for seven minutes the Whites led the champions. But Calafiori arrived in the area to tuck home after Ben White's header, before substitute Guimarães finished off a smart move to put Arsenal in the lead and ultimately win the game.
"It's a bit difficult to describe the emotions," said Farke at full-time. "Firstly congratulations to Arsenal, it's down to the mentality Mikel has implemented here. My emotions are a mix. I'm heartbroken and gutted for my players, they deserved to travel back with points today. To travel back without points is tough. On the other hand I'm very proud of a top away performance. First half was on a really good level, didn't allow any chances.
"I told them at half-time if we keep going we'll win this game. We fully deserved to go in the lead, went for it and wanted the second goal. But Arsenal is the most consistent team in Europe, one of the best in the world. Can't really complain too much with [our] behaviour for this goal. Perhaps we were over-shifting too much and didn't spot the run quickly enough. Out of very little they were able to equalise. They used the momentum with another well-taken goal. We tried everything to find another answer to equalise the game, it was not to be. We'll take many, many positives from it."
Farke was not surprised by what his players produced against the champions because of their consistency in recent months and had no complaints with the performance.
"[The result] has to do with the quality of players they could bring in," he said. "Once you're in the lead and push for the second, sometimes as a team not used to winning titles you can be a bit over-excited in possession. We could have been a bit tidier and not given the ball away so easily. Sometimes it's [down to] a little bit of luck, there was not a big mistake, just a few details not spot on for the goal. They're able to bring quality players in to be so clinical in a difficult game for them. We're not in a position to speak about fighting for the Champions League or the title like Arsenal. I can't ask them for much more. No complaints."
