Raphinha opened the scoring for Leeds United in style this afternoon.
Leeds had a tricky visit to Watford but the Whites’ Brazilian maestro fired them ahead on 21 minutes.
With that beautiful left foot of his, the former Rennes winger found the corner with a perfectly-placed effort from outside the box.
Jesse Marsch’s outfit went on to win the game 3-0, with Rodrigo adding a second in the final quarter, before Jack Harrison made sure of the points.
But Raphinha’s contribution provided the foundations.
And Owen Hargreaves, speaking to Premier League Productions at half time, has described the goal as ‘absolute perfection.’
He said: “Wand of a left foot. You cannot let him in a position like this. Absolute perfection and he can keep them up. He’s on fire.”
Will Leeds survive?
Well, yes probably.
The Elland Road outfit are now nine points clear of the bottom three.
And although 18th-placed Burnley have three games in hand, winning all of them seems very unlikely.
It’s very much in Leeds’ hands and if Raphinha keeps producing moments of brilliance like this then Marsch’s side will certainly still be a Premier League team beyond this season.
The downside of the 25-year-old’s heroics is that it continues to alert bigger fish – in and out of the Premier League – that Leeds have an absolute gem.
And whether United stay up or not, keeping the South American in West Yorkshire might be their biggest fight of all.
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