Swansea City 3 Leeds United 4: Craziness and efficiency as Whites go top of the Championship — Yorkshire Post 24/11/24
By Stuart Rayner
"The only thing you can criticise is they are perhaps
lacking a little bit of cutting edge but if we mention it too often it will be
a game on Sunday when they are unbelievably efficient," said Daniel Farke
when asked before the game what he made of Swansea City.
No prizes for guessing what happened next. For the first
time August, Swansea scored three times.
But the good news for the Leeds United was that Farke’s side
were even more efficient going forward than they were sloppy at the back in a
bonkers game of nine shots on target and seven goals.
It was a long and particularly unpleasant journey to south
Wales for the travelling hordes, but seeing their team go top of the
Championship with a 4-3 win explained perfectly why so many made it.
Leeds' usual defensive security escaped them but it did not
matter when they scored four from their four strikes on target, substitute
Willy Gnonto snatching a stoppage-time victory it looked like substitute
Florian Bianchini had snatched away seconds before.
It was Swansea who had set the ball rolling after some
doziness from Ao Tanaka.
The Japan midfielder could be aggrieved when Dean Whitestone
gave a soft free-kick for his challenge on Ronald, but not for giving Harry
Darling a clear run onto the ball Matty Grimes clipped in from it in the ninth
minute.
But from there, Tanaka was outstanding, picking pockets and
breaking up play as the prelude to a showreel of passes.
One of them was the highlight of an equaliser of stunning
precision, releasing Dan James when he picked up the ball just inside the
Swans' half, and watching the Wales international play it along the ground for
Manor Solomon to equalise.
Solomon had a good international break but so too did Liam
Cullen, and he was able to put his side back in front.
It had not really been on the cards with James seeing a
goalbound effort from a Joel Piroe pull-back cleared, and another wonderfully
threaded throughball by Tanaka on the turn releasing Jayden Bogle via Brenden
Aaronson, only for the wing-back to woefully overhit his cross.
But Goncalo Franco blazed wide after pouncing on Joe Rodon's
block from a Cullen shot and three minutes into stoppage time Swansea took full
advantage of more Leeds sloppiness.
Pascal Struijk gave the ball away, Ronald ran too easily
inside Sam Byram and pulled the ball back for Cullen, a two-goal scorer for
Wales against Iceland, to sidefoot his shot in off the far post beyond the
desperate stretch of Meslier.
Both teams kept playing the same pleasing way in the second
half and Leeds eventually got their reward.
It was the visitors on the front foot after the resumption,
Bogle ballooning a volleyed cross when picked out by Joe Rothwell and James
hitting a shot into the crowd of defenders in front of him.
With Leeds unable to find the net, Swansea did it for them.
One more James was released down the right and once more he opted to play the
ball in low. Desperate to stop it reaching Piroe, Cabango put it through his
own net.
Leeds pushed for a winner but the frustration was growing in
the away end as Farke ignored the pleas for Gnonto. Then, just as the Italian
was ready to come on, Solomon scored his second of the game.
Struijk released Byram down the left and when he put it in,
Solomon found the net then glanced backwards to check that the linesman had not
flagged the full-back offside. He had not.
Solomon immediately made way for Gnonto, as Piroe did for
Mateo Joseph.
Ironically, it was only after Farke brought on two more
substitutes to lock the door – Josuha Guilavogui and Max Wober – that Swansea
sneaked through it.
One Swansea substitute, Azeem Abdulai, had let them off the
hook when his 86th-minute diving header missed the target.
Bianchini, who had also come off the bench, levelled matters
in the 90th minute when he slid onto a Josh Tymon cross.
Leeds' balloon deflated, but in no time at all, the game had
zig-zagged again.
Almost immediately Gnonto provided the calm finish to a move
he started.