Leeds United 3-3 Liverpool: Arne Slot’s headache continues but home side show they can avoid the drop
When the story of this season is told, there could be a chapter on how Daniel Farke’s Leeds United fought first against Chelsea, and then against Liverpool in quick succession, to drag themselves out of the clutches of relegation.
Perhaps. They have shown they have more than enough in them to stay up, when only a few weeks ago the bells were tolling for the manager to lose his job and Leeds fans were wondering if a drop back down was inevitable.
Of course a large section of that story will go to Liverpool and their almighty collapse under Arne Slot. Here Mohamed Salah was benched again, for the third straight time; and here Liverpool, although they raced into a two-goal lead courtesy of the brilliant Hugo Ekitike, collapsed at the end and allowed a comeback, with Ao Tanaka scoring a late third goal to force a 3-3 draw at Elland Road.
Leeds opened with aggression and forced a handful of early half-chances, but it was Ekitike, returning the starting lineup after a month as a substitute, who punished Joe Rodon’s mistake to score his fourth league goal of the season and give Liverpool the lead.
Moments later, he scored his fifth when Conor Bradley darted in front of Gabriel Gudmundsson to keep a loose ball alive and whipped a low cross toward the six-yard area for the Frenchman to bundle in.
But then Leeds had their own say. After Ibrahima Konate crashed into Willy Gnonto in the box, the in-form Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted from the spot to halve the lead.
Then two minutes later Elland Road erupted again. Brendan Aaronson combined with Gnonto before threading a pass inside for Anton Stach. The midfielder then slammed the ball into the near post.
Liverpool had a few nice moments and then Dominik Szoboszlai looked like he had won it with his low finish into the far corner, but Tanaka had the last word.
