Marcelo Bielsa and Pep Guardiola rewind the clock to produce another classic

It ended deadlocked just as it did on November 6, 2011 when Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao side hosted Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona at a sodden San Memes.

That 2-2 draw is one that devotees of Spanish football still instantly recall. Saturday night’s episode will also live long in the memory banks for lovers here.

At the end of it, Bielsa afforded himself a couple of moments of personal reflection – make that rest – before having a few words with his fellow pure footballing ideologue in Guardiola and then sharing an embrace. It was a thing of beauty like the game.

For Leeds, there was the satisfaction in going toe to toe with another member of the game’s glitterati, as they did with Liverpool.

It could have yielded a famous victory. Yet a point was just.

Early days it may be, but the way that Leeds are imposing their will on rivals suggests this will be a rich season devoid of the fears usually associated with many promoted clubs. Leeds are here to stay and there is fun in store.

A classic began with a relentless and ravenous opening from a City side clearly smarting after a 5-2 home loss to Leicester.

Many sides would have gone under, more especially after Raheem Sterling’s cool opener. But Leeds possessed a strong jaw and managed to break the visitors’ suffocating early press to start landing punches of their own.

Only very good sides are capable of doing that against City, who struggled for breath for spells of the second half, with Guardiola forced to make tactical readjustments after a couple of changes from Bielsa reaped a harvest.

Rodrigo’s poacher’s effort, three minutes after coming on, was instinctive. He also rattled the woodwork twice and whetted the appetite for the season ahead. His radiant smile after his strike spoke a thousand words.

Ian Poveda’s interval introduction against his old club was also key and looks like a breakthrough moment for the young winger.

After the early education, there was such expression from Leeds.

Reflecting on it all, Kalvin Phillips, a target of City’s intense early press, said: “We know they are a very good offensive team, but knew they had weaknesses defensively and, in the second half, we came out on top a little bit and had a few chances which you don’t really get often when you are playing good teams like that.

“I think we gave them a little bit too much respect in the first 20.

“We are a team that is very attacking and so are they, so it was just end to end stuff.”

Whenever he used to get down in management, the late Jim Smith used to ask his staff to send for a video of Nottingham Forest during the Brian Clough era.

After this contest, managers across the world might just be requesting a DVD of a game which showed just why Bielsa and Guardiola are held in such reverence.

Bielsa prepared asado, an Argentine barbecue where meat is hung over an open fire, when he met Guardiola for a famous 11-hour footballing pow-wow at his ranch in Rosario some years ago.

Here was another succulent feast which had everything. Intense football, thrills, spills, penalty shouts, a stack of chances and some mistakes before everyone paused for breath.

Few will be quite sure how Leeds withstood City’s opening.

With newly-crowned Uefa midfielder of the season Kevin De Bruyne – whose brilliantly disguised early free-kick hit the post – conducting the orchestra, City moved through the gears early and looked every inch like a side who had scored 12 goals on their three previous top-flight road trips.

Opportunities arrived in open play and from set-pieces before Sterling ruthlessly exposed some loose Leeds play where Ilan Meslier and Liam Cooper were culpable, slaloming past several challenges before firing home.

Slightly earlier, Stuart Dallas had made a block close to the goalline to deny Ferran Torres. The indefatigable Northern Irishman would later have a big chance at the other end when he was played in after a smart move and denied by the onrushing Ederson. It was moments like that which transfused Leeds with hope.

Cajoled into action by a shout of ‘Vamos Leeds’ midway through the first half from Victor Orta, Leeds did just that. The hosts ended the half strongly and only another key block from Ederson thwarted Luke Ayling just before the interval after Mendy’s error.

The second wave from City never arrived. Instead, they felt the force of a pumped up Leeds side, whose work ethic was staggering in such heavy conditions.

Rodrigo fired out a marker when he showed dancing feet before hammering a shot against the woodwork from a tight angle.

He was not to be denied soon after when Ederson weakly punched Phillips’s corner into the back of Mendy and the £26m striker gobbled up the rebound.

Ederson redeemed himself with a fine finger-tip save to push Rodrigo’s header onto the bar and thwart Patrick Bamford late on.

At the other end, Leeds had to repel pressure from City before time was called. A game which had everything apart from a winner. Rightly so, as Bielsa opined.

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James Mitchinson

Editor