Leeds United came seriously close to staying in the Premier League after a convincing 3:1 victory against Burnley in a match from the 35th round. National player Iliya Gruev remains out of the fields until the end of the season due to an injury, BTA reports. With this success, the team from “Eland Road“ took a decisive step towards surviving in the elite. Leeds now has a nine-point lead over Tottenham Hotspur, who occupy the last position in the relegation zone. Daniel Farke's squad climbed to 14th place, ahead of Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and West Ham United, although with a game more. At the bottom, Wolverhampton and Burnley are now finally losing their chances of salvation. After the final whistle, Leeds players celebrated the valuable success together with their fans, who filled the stands at “Eland Road“.
“It's an incredible feeling. We followed our plan perfectly and controlled what was happening on the pitch. They had nothing to lose and that could have made them dangerous, but we did very well“, said striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin after the match.
The hosts took the lead in the eighth minute through Anton Stach, who scored with a powerful shot from long range. At the beginning of the second half, Leeds doubled their lead after a mistake by Bashir Humphries. Noah Okafor took advantage of the situation and scored the second goal.
Just a few minutes later, Calvert-Lewin also scored, after reacting fastest to a ball cleared by goalkeeper Martin Dubravka after a shot by Ao Tanaka. The consolation goal for Burnley was scored by Lom Chawna.
Just a day earlier, Burnley parted ways with manager Scott Parker, and the team will be led by interim coach Mike Jackson until the end of the season.
“I expected the game to be difficult after the events of the last 24 hours. It all affected the team and at the beginning we looked shocked. In the second half we started better, but we made too many mistakes“, Jackson commented after the defeat.