Habib Diarra’s decisive penalty for streetwise Sunderland sees off Leeds | Premier League

Final yr Sunderland departed West Yorkshire on a snowy February evening with their hopes of automated promotion from the Championship in tatters. Leeds had come from behind to clinch a ninety fifth‑minute win that might take them high of the second tier and solely essentially the most optimistic visiting followers anticipated a rematch this season.

Quick ahead to a balmy March night, although, and Régis Le Bris’s properly‑executed gameplan lifted an damage hit but streetwise Sunderland and their debutant goalkeeper Melker Ellborg to eleventh within the Premier League.

Who might severely have ­imagined final ­February that, due to Habib ­Diarra’s second‑half penalty right here, the eventual playoff winners can be on 40 factors, 9 forward of Daniel Farke’s group now?

Diarra and co arrived very a lot in containment mode and weren’t precisely averse to indulging in slightly time-wasting as they slowed the sport down at nearly each alternative. It’s no exaggera­tion to say that Le Bris’s gamers devoted the night to defending Ellborg and irritating Leeds followers in equal ­measure.

“We defended very well,” the Sunderland supervisor mentioned. “To win at Leeds means quite a bit. It was an intense recreation with out oxygen.”

Farke appeared commendably sanguine after watching his aspect mono­polise the ball however fail to do sufficient with it. “We have been so dominant, we had a lot possession, however we knew we might face a really compact, competent Sunderland,” mentioned the Leeds supervisor, who refused to be drawn on recommendations Ellborg had faked ­accidents. “They’re sensible. It’s tough to clarify how they received however we lacked slightly little bit of focus within the closing go. It’s actually irritating.”

Ellborg, a £3m January arrival from Malmö, was deputising for the hamstrung Robin Roefs. His teammates fortunately ceded loads of posses­sion to Leeds however their ­positioning off the ball was so ­suffocating that, bar expertly ­turning an Anton Stach free‑kick round a put up, Ellborg had surprisingly little to do.

Enzo Le Fée is Sunderland’s ­brightest artistic expertise however, with the left‑sided midfielder’s night spent largely in intelligently industrious ­monitoring‑again mode quite than choosing defence‑splitting passes, the Leeds goalkeeper, Karl Darlow, was even much less concerned than his Swedish counterpart.

Like Farke, Sunderland’s supervisor had organized his aspect in a 3‑4‑2‑1 formation. With the wonderful Dan ­Ballard ­directing operations from the center of a again three additionally that includes the equally spectacular Luke O’Nien and Omar Alderete, Dominic ­Calvert‑Lewin’s hopes of recapturing his free‑scoring kind of some weeks in the past have been completely stifled.

Le Bris’s techniques compelled Leeds to play far too immediately for their very own good they usually hardly ever managed to go with any actual form of tempo or incision.

Ten minutes into the primary half, although, Sunderland altered course. On got here the captain, Granit Xhaka, and the arrival of a participant who serves because the group’s equal of an ­air‑site visitors controller in central midfield prompted a swap to a again 4 and a barely extra attacking strategy.

To not be outdone, Farke launched a second striker in Lukas ­Nmecha and, nearly instantly, Leeds thought they’d taken the lead. Maybe inevitably, that ­in the end disallowed effort got here from a set piece and featured Stach’s free‑kick being headed past a wrong-footed Ellborg and in off the bar by Joe Rodon. But, as a video assistant referee intervention confirmed, Rodon was round a yard offside and it didn’t stand.

As an alternative Sunderland quickly received a penalty when Ethan Ampadu was judged to have blocked Wilson ­Isidor’s shot together with his arm. Given the ball deflected off Ampadu’s knee, Leeds followers have been incandescent, however a VAR assessment and a visit to his pitchside monitor helped the referee, Stuart Attwell, to determine the midfielder had intentionally guided the ball to security.

Up stepped Diarra and, though Darlow received a hand to the Senegal midfielder’s spot-kick, he couldn’t maintain it. “In video games like this you all the time have one or two opportu­nities,” Le Bris mentioned. “And we took ours.”