Reading 0 Leeds United 3: Blades is the focus now for Bielsa

Leeds head coach Marcelo Bielsa urged his players to concentrate on their forthcoming games rather than dwell on their position at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.
Leeds United's Liam Cooper salutes the fans after their win at Reading.Leeds United's Liam Cooper salutes the fans after their win at Reading.
Leeds United's Liam Cooper salutes the fans after their win at Reading.

Three first-half goals gave Leeds a comfortable 3-0 victory at lowly Reading and moved them above previous leaders Norwich.

After a cagey opening, Leeds went ahead in the 14th minute through a calm finish from Mateusz Klich.

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Pablo Hernandez increased the lead eight minutes later and, two minutes from the interval, he lashed in his 10th goal of the campaign.

Although Reading improved in the second period, Leeds still squandered a series of chances to make their win even more emphatic.

“If you have a look at the table, you can only reach the conclusion that we still have many games to play,” Bielsa said.

“Taking this into account, we will have to win every game. At least we will try to win each game.

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“It was a fair result and we could have scored more goals but we could also have conceded a goal.

“The team was faithful to our style and we played against an opponent that has dangerous offensive players.

“Honestly, I don’t think that it was an easy game tonight. Even if we dominated the game and could have scored more goals, Reading had chances to score, too.”

Leeds face third-placed Sheffield United at Elland Road on Saturday.

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“We can say that we won’t have any possibility to have training sessions with any physical efforts,” Bielsa said.

“We will have to work on recovery and on theoretical analysis of what we can analyse.

“It is always special to play against an opponent [Sheffield United] that is near the top of the table and close to your rank.”

Reading fell to defeat after two successive victories.

“It was a very good game, a very good football match,” manager Jose Gomes said.

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“We played against a very strong team, maybe one of the strongest in the league in the offensive dynamic.

“Leeds had very good movements with intensity and very fast movements between all their players. But the result doesn’t show the performance that we have put in.

“We are not happy with the result, of course, we cannot be. But my players did a lot of positive things that we must catch for the future.

“And the way that my younger players played today. They showed that they weren’t afraid.

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“Ryan East and Michael Olise - so that was another positive thing.

“We didn’t get any points from this game and we conceded three goals but we had a lot of very good actions and very good football moments.

“Saturday we couldn’t celebrate [after the 3-2 win over Wigan] and now we cannot cry.”