Sheffield Wednesday: What Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa made of that Adam Reach goal

Rival boss Marcelo Bielsa held up his hands and admitted there was nothing his table-topping team could do to stop Adam Reach's Sheffield Wednesday wonder goal.
Marcelo BielsaMarcelo Bielsa
Marcelo Bielsa

Reach struck on the stroke of half-time in Friday night's 1-1 Yorkshire derby draw against Leeds United at Hillsborough, scoring with a stunning 30-yard volley which dipped and went in off the woodwork to give the Owls the lead.

Bielsa says Leeds deserved to win the Championship clash after having 25 attempts on goal but conceded that Reach's effort, which put the Owls 1-0 in front, was unstoppable.

Marcelo BielsaMarcelo Bielsa
Marcelo Bielsa
Hide Ad
Hide Ad

'The shooting, we can't link that to mistakes we made, only to the skills of the opponent,' he said.

Reach received the ball following a throw-in on the right and his precision long-range finish flew over visiting goalkeeper Bailey Peacock-Farrell. 

Leeds, who arrived at Hillsborough in top spot with Wednesday in 10th, equalised in the 54th minute through Mateusz Klich's 20-yard curler and dominated the second half.

Adam Reach scores with a 30-yard volleyAdam Reach scores with a 30-yard volley
Adam Reach scores with a 30-yard volley

Argentine Bielsa said: "I'm truly disappointed. I don't like to judge the performance of the opponent but the fact that we had 25 chances to score talks about what we deserved.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

'Normally we need three chances to score a goal. It's a statistic common to teams who lead their division. But in the previous game against Birmingham City we needed eight chances to score. Against Sheffield Wednesday we needed 25."

Owls manager Jos Luhukay, whose side have now lost only one of their last seven league outings, accepted that, after a relatively even first period, Leeds had taken control of the contest.

"It was very difficult to match them in the second half," he said. "They have so many quick players and they have more of the ball. They set their own rhythm. Leeds let us make mistakes and they deserved 1-1.

"I think my team will, absolutely, learn from this game. It is a process. We did fantastic in two halves last week (a 2-1 win at Aston Villa). Hopefully on Wednesday in the game against West Brom we can do it in two halves."