Marcelo Bielsa's mixed feelings after Patrick Bamford snatches late point for Leeds United against Brentford - YEP 5/12/21

The dramatic timing of Leeds United's equaliser against Brentford left Marcelo Bielsa valuing one point, from a game he felt should have brought three.

By Graham Smyth

Leeds took the lead midway through the first half when Raphinha's cross was converted by Tyler Roberts, but a pair of goals in a six-minute second half period swung the game in Brentford's favour.

With Kalvin Phillips struggling to run through injury, the Bees attacked down the Leeds left and when the ball came into the middle it was dispatched by Shandon Baptiste. Sergi Canos darted into the area to take a pass on Diego Llorente's blindside to score the visitors' second.

Leeds huffed and puffed without creating chances in the final stages until a 95th minute corner was flicked on by Luke Ayling and crashed in off the bar by Patrick Bamford.

The nature of the equaliser and the wild celebrations it sparked left Leeds with a better taste in their mouths, but Bielsa still felt they were worth more than a point.

"To have drawn the game the way we did changes the flavour," he said.

"But if you look at the game in its general context, we should have won it. We conceded the first part of the game, but without conceding any goals. From the initial 15 minutes onwards we had a good half an hour. We started the second half well and we had incomings and outgoings like Ayling and Phillips where we were a few moments without them. Kalvin went back on and came back off, that made us lose organisation but it shouldn't have been this way. In those 15 minutes in the second half we did receive the goals. But the final 15 minutes, with a lot more difficulties but a lot of perseverance to attack, I think we ended up getting a result that was fair on one side and insufficient if you look at the whole game.

Marcelo Bielsa introduces Leeds United and Kalvin Phillips to his Chilean love affair.https://t.co/8YgiFtjJyG#lufc

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"We dominated two thirds of the game and we duplicated the amount of dangerous situations we had, compared to the opponent."

Brentford's second goal had an element of misfortune where Leeds were concerned. Phillips had gone off having required treatment for a knock and attempted to come back on and play but was soon waving to the bench to signal he had a problem. He was left trailing behind the play as Brentford went and put the ball and the net.

"Yes it had an influence [on the goal]," said Bielsa.

"Which isn't to say we shouldn't be in condition to play with one man less at times."

The game saw the return of both Luke Ayling and Bamford, the former from the start in a back three and the latter off the bench in the second half.

"Ayling had a satisfactory game, Patrick scored a goalscorer's goal," said the head coach.

"The sector of the pitch [Bamford] came on in, it was difficult to find the ball but finally he gave us the equaliser that for our expectations is very valuable, given how we got it. Before the game it wasn't a good result, after the first half it wasn't as well but when the game was finishing we need to value what we got. The players that are used to scoring normally they're in the right place at the right moment. What you value about the score is the opportunism of it."

Bielsa had no updates on the injuries sustained by Phillips and Liam Cooper, who hobbled off after a quarter of an hour having fallen awkwardly in his penalty area, but says Pascal Struijk is in the final stages of his recovery from a hip issue.