Leeds United 1 West Ham 2 - Raphinha opener proves in vain as Whites suffer late heartache against Hammers - YEP 25/9/21
Raphinha's first-half opener proved in vain as Leeds United fell to a third reverse of the Premier League season in Saturday's hosting of West Ham which ended in a 2-1 defeat.
By Lee Sobot
Leeds went ahead in the 19th minute with a brilliant
composed finish from Raphinha whose drive from the edge of the box flew into
the bottom left corner following strong work from Rodrigo and Mateusz's Klich
cool's pass.
Raphinha was then denied a very similar second goal as
another shot from the edge of the box cannoned back off the post and Stuart
Dallas was earlier kept out by a fantastic save by Lukasz Fabianski.
But Illan Meslier had earlier pulled off two fine stops to
deny both Michail Antonio and Said Benrahma as the Hammers made a bright start
and the Frenchman thwarted the visitors in first half stoppage time to deny
Pablo Fornals who had been played in one on one.
The returning Jack Harrison then replaced Dan James at the
interval and West Ham looked to have equalised in the 53rd minute when Tomas
Soucek netted from close range after a free-kick.
But Antonio had knocked down Meslier with his arm and the
goal was disallowed after referee Kevin Friend checked his monitor via the
intervention of VAR.
West Ham then drew level in the 67th minute when Jarrod
Bowen cut in from the right and unleashed a fierce drive that took a deflection
off Junior Firpo to fly past Meslier.
Tyler Roberts was then brought on for Raphinha but West Ham
finished the stronger and bagged the game's winning goal when Leeds were carved
open through the middle and Declan Rice played in Antonio who beat Jamie
Shackleton before slotting a finish past Meslier in the 90th minute.
