Leeds United produced a stunning turnaround to put themselves back into the top two in the Championship.
If Leeds manage to go on and secure promotion out of the Championship, then Saturday is likely to go down as a defining moment in the season given the events at both Elland Road and Bramall Lane.
At the start of the day, the Blades had a one point advantage over Marcelo Bielsa’s side following their win before the international break. And with 70 minutes gone, it appeared that Leeds’ automatic-promotion hopes were fading as the gap increased to four points.
Millwall led 2-1 at Elland Road, while Chris Wilder’s men led by the same scoreline elsewhere in Yorkshire. However, both grounds would witness incredible turnarounds.
Leeds were first to strike as Luke Ayling got onto the end of a Barry Douglas cross to equalise. And Bristol City would do their bit by scoring twice in the remaining minutes to leave the Blades 3-2 down.
Moments later, Pablo Hernandez scored the goal that sent Elland Road into a frenzy and put Bielsa’s men back into the automatic-promotion spots with seven games remaining.
It was an incredible game, and Leeds supporters would have been forgiven that they were heading for another defeat when Liam Cooper gave away a penalty after going to ground inside the box earlier on in the second-half.
In fairness to Cooper, he had to make the challenge with the visitors capitalising on a mistake further up the field and producing a fast break into the penalty area that looked likely to end in a goal anyway.
But one image after Hernandez’s winner perhaps best sums up what kind of day it was for Leeds, and for Cooper in particular. The photo shows Tyler Roberts screaming in the same way that the near 35-000 crowd had been when the Spaniard found the back of the net for a second time.
And the Wales international is being embraced by Cooper. The captain also fails to hide how much the goal means to him, and it is perhaps fair to assume that he was incredibly relieved that his mistake did not prove costly, especially as few players deserve more praise for getting Leeds into their current position than the centre-back, who has been outstanding for much of the campaign.
Here is the image showing the pair after the third goal…
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