The latest round of Championship fixtures continued on Saturday afternoon as Huddersfield Town hosted Leeds United. Andre Breitenreiter’s first home game in charge of the Terriers couldn’t have been a tougher task, as Daniel Farke’s side arrived at the John Smith’s Stadium looking for a tenth straight win in the Championship; having dismissed leaders Leicester City last time out.
HUD: Nicholls; Pearson, Lees, Nakayama; Thomas, Kasumu, Hogg, Rudoni, Spencer; Ward, Burgzorg
LEE: Meslier; Gray, Rodon, Ampadu, Firpo; Gruev, Kamara; Gnonto, Summerville, Rutter; Bamford
The John Smith’s Stadium almost played host to a brilliantly worked team goal from the visitors with just four minutes gone, but Crysencio Summerville was unable to apply the finish from close-range following Glen Kamara’s cutback.
Jack Rudoni had two straight chances of his own to open the scoring for the home side, but his long-range strike and flick-on from the resulting corner were both kept out by Illan Meslier. Danny Ward was also denied from close-range via a block from Archie Gray.
With nine minutes of injury time added on at the end of the first half, the deadlock was finally broken; and it could be considered a surprise as to which team did so. Sorba Thomas swung in a beautiful free kick from the left hand side, and it landed at the head of Michal Helik. The defender headed straight at Illan Meslier who palmed the ball back out into the path of Helik, who smashed the ball home on the rebound to give the Terriers a shock lead.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut as soon as Huddersfield had gone a goal up, they were reduced to ten a few moments later. After being cautioned for a late challenge on Crysencio Summerville previously, Terriers captain Jonathan Hogg found himself being given his marching orders following his arm catching Georginio Rutter in the face.
Rutter then had a chance to punish Huddersfield just before the break, but his fierce strike whistled just past the far post. It proved the same story at the start of the second half, as the Dutch international curled his latest effort well wide of the far corner.
Sorba Thomas had been impressive for the Terriers in this Yorkshire derby, and his superb delivery in from a corner found Matty Pearson at the far post, whose header whiskered just wide at the far post.
With just under 25 minutes to go, Leeds found the equaliser through a familiar source. Substitute Dan James raced forward down the right hand side and laid the ball off to Connor Roberts, who swung in a peach of a ball towards Patrick Bamford, who slotted home from close range to bring the away side level.
Embed from Getty ImagesCrysencio Summerville almost won the game for the visitors late on, but his wonderful strike from just inside the box smacked off the far post and away for a goal kick.
Both sides are next in action this coming week, with Leeds hosting Stoke City on Tuesday, and Huddersfield making the trip to Wales to take on Cardiff City on Wednesday – both games kick off at 7:45pm.
