FIRST HALF – NO BREAKTHROUGH
The Reds made a positive start with Mason Greenwood mustering a header on target very early on, from a Bruno Fernandes free-kick, even if it was comfortably fielded by Illan Meslier in the home goal. Marcus Rashford then got his finish all wrong after streaking onto a glorious long pass out of defence by Victor Lindelof, providing a let-off for the exposed Leeds defence.
Another Fernandes set-piece from the left again threatened Meslier’s goal but it came to Harry Maguire at an awkward height and the skipper could not steer it on target with his knee.
Leeds had a handball shout against Luke Shaw checked by VAR when the left-back, playing with supreme confidence, could not really get out of the way after a misjudgement by Patrick Bamford, but there were few clear-cut chances in the opening half an hour.
Fernandes clipped a free-kick over the bar after he was fouled, a few minutes before Stuart Dallas had the hosts’ first shot on target, which forced a simple save out of Dean Henderson, standing out in his brightly coloured orange socks in goal.
After 37 minutes, Rashford was flattened by Luke Ayling, who was booked for the cynical challenge, but Fernandes’ ball in from the set-play, the fourth from the left of the half, flicked off Bamford’s head and cleared the bar. The closest we came to a goal was in the closing stages of the half as Meslier produced a top save to tip away Rashford’s free-kick, with Maguire nodding the resulting corner over the top.
