Mens

Marcelo Bielsa: The fair result would have been a draw

Head coach reflects on Chelsea defeat.

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Marcelo Bielsa gave his thoughts to the media after seeing his side lose in the final seconds, away at Chelsea in the Premier League.

The Whites went into a first half lead through Raphinha, only to then go behind in the game.

Joe Gelhardt came off the bench to level proceedings late on for Leeds, but Chelsea won the match in stoppage time after Jorginho netted his second penalty of the game.

“I think the fair result would have been a draw,” Bielsa explained.

“Both teams played a beautiful game. For us to manage that they didn’t play well was very difficult, and to create danger against them, also.

“But, in a balanced way, we managed to achieve both things, which wasn’t enough for us to be better than them but we also could not be worse than them.

“I never give an opinion [on the penalties], whatever the referee decides is fine with me.”

Asked about the absences in his side due to injuries, Bielsa was keen to stress that he felt the players who came into the team performed well, as well as praising Gelhardt on his first Premier League goal.

He said: “The absences, we resolved them.

“With an added difficulty that we were missing four players in the same sector of the pitch, Robin Koch, Kalvin Phillips, Pascal Struijk and Liam Cooper. The other two absentees were from the centre of the attack.

“The absence of Pascal was produced yesterday. A movement made two bones in his foot collide and that produced a pain that didn’t allow him to play today.

“But I think Adam Forshaw, Deigo Llorente and Luke Ayling resolved that situation very well. The same with Tyler Roberts, Gelhardt and Dan James.

“He’s [Gelhardt] a player that’s an opportunist. He’s always close to the goal and to have achieved that at this level, it’s not just any goal because it is a goal that generated a leveller that was deserved.

“I think it has value that he scored it.”

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