Rodrigo Moreno was left to rue Lukasz Fabianski’s fine last-gasp stop as Leeds United were held to a 2-2 home draw by West Ham during a madcap Premier League encounter at Elland Road, speaking to LUTV.
On a wet old night in West Yorkshire, goals rained down as two of the division’s most storied old clubs traded blows. Willy Gnonto’s gorgeous opener was cancelled out on the stroke of half time by a classy Lucas Paqueta penalty. Gianluca Scamacca and Rodrigo Moreno – Italian and Spanish internationals respectively – then showed their class with razor-sharp long-range strikes after the interval.
And Rodrigo came closer than anyone else to securing three valuable points in the battle against the drop; his stoppage-time header kept out by 37-year-old Fabianski at his near post, the veteran shot-stopper proving that age is indeed just a number.
“For me, we had more chances to finally win the game,” Rodrigo sighs. “It’s true that they have quality as well. They scored two good goals, especially the second one (from Scamacca).
“I had the final chance, which was a really good save from the ‘keeper. Yeah (I thought I’d scored). The ball was (practically) in the goal. It was a good save.”
Leeds and West Ham United draw 2-2 at Elland Road
Had Rodrigo found a way past the veteran Pole, West Ham would have travelled back to the capital with a sixth successive Premier League defeat hanging around their necks. It remains to be seen if a point – albeit a hard-earned and potentially useful one – is enough to ease the rising pressure on David Moyes.
“I’m not running away from taking responsibility,” Fabianski himself said following his most timely of interventions. “I believe I am a big part of this team and I’ve made some mistakes in recent games. But I’m very demanding of myself and I’m never really satisfied fully with my performances.
“I always want to do my best for the team. Today, at the end, there was a situation where the team needed me and I was able to respond. Those little moments are always important. Not just for me personally but for this group, because they’re working really hard every single day and we want to turn things around.
“I hope this is an important point. We’ve been on a really, really bad run, and we lost so many games in a row. I think the confidence was really low. First of all, we wanted to get a result and put in a brave performance. I think we did that against Leeds.”
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