Scott Gardner's Leeds United U21s earned another valuable point in West London.
Leeds United Under-21s matched the spirit of their senior colleagues in coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 at Chelsea on Friday.
In almost a mirror-image to Daniel Farke’s first-team earlier this month, the young Whites conceded late in the first-half and early in the second to give themselves a mountain to climb. Defender Jacob Howard put into his own net before the break with Shim Mhueka doubling his side’s lead on 56 minutes.
But Leeds rallied to pull one back on the hour-mark through a combination of great play from either full-back. The consistently impressive Jayden Lienou picked out Freddie Lane with an excellent outside-of-the-boot pass from left-back, with 18-year-old Lane cutting onto his left foot and finishing well from inside the box for his first U21s goal.
Rhys Chadwick then put Leeds level with a clinical right-footed finish, having seen substitute Jack Morris win possession high up the pitch. And to cap off the similarities to Stamford Bridge a fortnight ago, Chelsea star-man Mhueka had a late chance to win it but his effort was brilliantly blocked by Luke Matykiewicz.
Reflecting on the point and his first U21s goal, right-back Lane told LUTV: “We have come close in the last couple of weeks. We have had some good performances and got a bit unlucky, so to get the point today, we are really pleased and I am glad to contribute.
“We just kept positive, and then we got the first goal which gave us a bit of momentum, and then a second goal was just sort of what we deserved, really. We spoke at half-time about finding that long ball from Jayden towards me, out wide, and then the one time we tried it in the second half, maybe a bit of fortune, but the full-back misread it in flight, and then it was just a bit of composure from myself to put a centre-half on the floor and put it in the bottom corner.
“I was out a long time and sometimes it takes you a bit to get going but I am grabbing the opportunity Scott has given me with both hands to get straight back into the XI. I am just glad I can help contribute back with the team.”
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Leeds United U21s boss on ‘deserved point’ vs Chelsea
That point leaves Leeds just three points off the Premier League 2 play-off places ahead of next weekend’s meeting West Ham at the LNER Community Stadium. And head coach Gardner was delighted with the resilience of his young side against one of the division’s most talented outfits.
“I felt like we deserved our point today,” Gardner added. “They have done unbelievably well to get back into it. It is just about believing in yourself and backing yourself because I thought there was nothing between the sides, before the first goal definitely.
“We talked a lot in the last couple of weeks about ‘maybe the results have not gone our way but there have been moments in games where we have looked really good.’ It felt like the last couple of games, we have had some nice bits, but we have lacked a little bit of that cutting edge at both sides of the pitch that we showed today.”
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