Kalvin Phillips has told Amazon Prime that Raphinha just ‘oozes class’ after Leeds United’s 1-0 win against Crystal Palace on Tuesday night.
A showman with bundles of skill and nerves of steel, Raphinha stepped up in stoppage-time to score a late winning penalty for Leeds.
Even when the game was seemingly headed towards a goalless draw, Raphinha was handed the Man of the Match award by Ally McCoist on commentary.
And he couldn’t have timed that any better because, moments later, Marc Guéhi was raising his hand inside the penalty area and Raphinha was stepping up to do the honours from the spot-kick.
Phillips shared that Raphinha is someone who has always shown that confidence in his play, as he praised him for yesterday’s performance.
“He has always been like that (confident),” said Phillips. “You can see Rafa (Raphinha) is a very, very good player and he just oozes class.
“So I didn’t expect anything else other than him scoring that goal.”
In what has been a troublesome and injury-hit season for Leeds so far, that was a much-needed three points for Marcelo Bielsa’s men and one that will lift some worried faces in the stands.
The Whites edge further away from the bottom three after last night’s win – five points ahead of 18th-placed Norwich.
Whilst they will still be peeking over their shoulders, they can start to look up now and they know that a strong festive period could see them flying towards the top ten – and perhaps beyond.
If that is to happen then Leeds United’s three most important players – Raphinha, Phillips and Patrick Bamford need to be on the pitch at the same time as much as possible.
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