Here’s the report from Ben Fisher.
Classic of the genre from the City social media team.
— Bristol City FC (@BristolCity) August 4, 2019
Patrick Bamford speaks.
It’s nice when you are a striker to start with a goal. In terms of pressure it’s on he team as a goal. We have to come back stronger and show what what we can do.
Pablo Hernandez speaks:
We knew we had a hard start today, we were very good in possession. We lost the chance to go to the Premier League. Today we showed we can do the same work and we deserved to win. We knew it was a difficult game. We scored in the first half and this gave us confidence. We scored three goals and it’s important to get all three goals.
Full-time: Bristol City 1-3 Leeds United
That’s it. Leeds, as they did last season, have started like a train. Can they go one better than last season? Their inventiveness and energy meant they swarmed all over City, and the skill of Hernandez meant that was converted into three points. City looked what they are, a team that has lost a couple of their better players in the summer.
90+4 min: This one is done, but still City push on. The season is too young for there to be conservation of effort.
90+3 min: City push on, the cause not yet abandoned but time is ticking on. Bielsa is off his bucket and issuing a withering rebuke to Leif Davis for some infringement of the code or other. Casilla, again, comes for a ball he might not have done. He just about gets there, and takes out teammate Liam Cooper in the process.
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90+1 min: Helder Costa gets his first chance to run at the City defence but the ball gets stuck under his feet.
90 min: Five minutes added on.
89 min: Bamford, chasing down a fine pass from Phillips, wins a corner and respite for Leeds. That is easily cleared by Hunt, and then City can launch an attack. Two goals in whatever is left looks beyond them.
88 min: Up comes Casilla to claim a corner, and he does well to catch it. Matty Taylor is booked for clattering him. The Spaniard will happily take his time in recovering from that.
86 min: Final Leeds sub: Leif Davis comes on for Jack Harrison.
85 min: A member of the Leeds bench has been shown a yellow card. Seems something was said that did not meet the referee’s approval.
84 min: Leeds clear hurriedly as Patterson tries to find space to shoot. Lee Johnson’s team have shown what might have been possible during this flurry. A pity about the previous 75 minutes.
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83 min: Yet another chance for City: Weimann loops a header over. Casilla was in no man’s land and will have been happy to see that fly over.
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81 min: And City win a free-kick in a highly dangerous position. Patterson hammers his attempt wide of the goal. That was a waste but the momentum is with the team losing 3-1.
80 min: And a final City change: On comes Matty Taylor for a tired Diedhiou. This may yet be an uncomfortable last ten minutes.
Goal! Bristol City 1-3 Leeds United (Weimann, 79)
City are having a go here, too late. It has been a chastening afternoon but here’s Weimann, cutting in from the right, past a half-hearted Hernandez tackle, and then he beats Casilla at the near post. Game on?
77 min: Bristol City have their first effort for a while as Diedhiou tries to bundle the ball home. He is stopped in his tracks. Been a thankless afternoon for the striker.
75 min: Here comes Helder Costa, the loan signing from Wolves, who was a rather surprising departure from Molineux. He comes on for Klich. Hernandez moves infield.
73 min: “We’re top of the league,” sing the Leeds fans. And they are right.
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Goal! Bristol City 0-3 Leeds United (Harrison, 72)
Dallas charges on down the right, his shot is deflected into the path of Harrison, coming from the opposite flank, who has time and space to pass the ball into the net.
69 min: Bristol City free-kick. The new wall rules lead to some chaotic scenes as two walls form. Brownhill takes and hits the side-netting, while Casilla crashed into the post. These rules:
New rules designed to stop interference with defensive . The new rules, which came into effect on 1 June, state that players from the attacking team are no longer allowed to stand within one metre of the defensive wall.
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68 min: Looks like City’s changes have effected a change from Bielsa. Of course they have. Is he playing that 3-3-1-3 yet?
66 min: Bielsa sits meditatively on his bucket. This is going well for him. But probably not well enough for him.
64 min: Double City change: O’Dowda and Palmer are off and Eliasson and Paterson are on.
63 min: Leeds go close to a third. Harrison burns down the left, sets up Klich, whose shot comes to Hernandez. A toiling City defence gets the ball away.
61 min: Casilla comes forward to play the ball out, as his manager likes, but his touch is hardly that of an Ederson and is launched somewhere into the Bristol skyline.
60 min: O’Dowda, who was culpable in the second goal when being beaten by Hernandez, tries to get City back into the game but Leeds break again, and Forshaw fires in a shot on goal that goes wide.
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58 min: That would appear to be that. Leeds have been so dangerous when Hernandez gets on the ball. Bamford, on whom there is a great burden, with Roofe heading to Anderlecht, has got his goal.
Goal! Bristol City 0-1 Leeds United (Bamford, 57)
Here come Leeds again through Jack Harrison. Phillips plays it out to Hernandez, and the magician digs out a cross from the byline. Bamford charges on to it to score with a bullet header.
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54 min: Kalas, back in the action, clears the danger when Harrison launches the ball out to the left. Ah, a third booking, and a delayed one. Hernandez is booked for trying to pull back Kasey Palmer in that move that White put an end to. And...a fourth, when Palmer leaves his mark with a tackle and is carded.
52 min: Hernandez on the wing, then Dallas try to force the issue. But Pack steps out to clear the danger. Then Palmer sends the ball to Weimann, whose cross to Diedhiou was dangerous but Ben White, the debutant, cleared the danger. He’s had an impressive game so far.
50 min: Up go Bamford and Kalas for the ball, and the recent signing from Chelsea - Kalas, that is - goes down with what looks like a head injury. Kalas leaves the field looking dazed but not too dazed to continue.
49 min: Second booking of the game. Adam Forshaw has made one foul too many and totting up means he gets a yellow.
47 min: First booking of the game, and it’s City’s Pack for pulling Klich back. Klich might have got more as he lashed out with a boot after the foul.
46 min: Right, we are back. It looks as if that fracas at half-time has calmed down, as Bielsa and Lee Johnson smile and shake hands.
There was another game on today, and here’s Paul Doyle’s match report.
Half-time: Bristol City 0-1 Leeds United
It ends with a Bielsa flashpoint as he starts rollicking Kasey Palmer for lashing the ball at Stuart Dallas when the whistle blows. All par for the course, and Bielsa ought to be happy with that half. His has been the better team, and Hernandez has been by far the best player. What a goal that was.
45+2 min: Two minutes have been added on. Bamford wins a free-kick as a pack of defenders hack at him. That gets the Leeds fans singing for him, so well done to him. They could have been singing even louder as Hernandez fashions another chance for Forshaw, but Bristol City get it clear.
45 min: Klich goes down under a heavy tackle from Pack. It was a fair tackle, though, even if Bielsa is again up on his feet to complain.
43 min: Groans from the home fans when Leeds are able to release the pressure after a Pack error and almost score. Hernandez plays in Forshaw, whose shot, whipped with his right foot, goes wide. It gets Bielsa off his bucket.
41 min: Leeds play the ball with calm, perhaps trying to take the sting out of this game until half-time. But then O’Dowda gets to the sideline, and his cross is missed by Casilla, and then Brownhill gets a shot in which Casilla does well to save. He redeemed himself with that.
38 min: Bristol City go in chase of that equaliser, and they are stepping up their efforts. Weimann has a shot blocked as Lee Johnson calls for more from the sideline.
36 min: Hernandez almost escapes again as Dasilva lets him go clear. Leeds’ magician runs out of space, though. For a team who have set up defensively, City do have a habit of sitting off their opponents.
35 min: O’Dowda makes a skidding run, head down, on the left flank, leaving Dallas for dead but his cross is not wonderful. Then, Kalas storms forward and he finds himself at the byline. Casilla cuts off the ball’s angle. Better from City.
33 min: Leeds continue to push on, with first Harrison and then Klich stopped by last-gasp tackles. The torpor of the early moments is gone.
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31 min: That tactic of whacking it up long almost worked. Weimann’s cross just evades the striker. A reminder that Leeds are fallible at the back.
29 min: Leeds are pushing on for a second already and City must ride out this storm. They are paying for a gameplan which seems to centre around hitting it long to Diedhiou and hoping something comes of it. “Marching On Together,” sing the Yorkshire contingent.
28 min: Had it been coming? Leeds had been the better team, but without looking like creating a true chance. But as soon as Hernandez got time on the ball, with Kalas guilty of allowing him such space, a goal became a fait accompli.
Goal! Bristol City 0-1 Leeds (Hernandez, 27)
Hernandez is given room to turn and spin, and shoot into the top left-hand corner. City stepped off him and paid the pice.
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24 min: Leeds with a striker would be dangerous, with respect to Patrick Bamford, the divine bouffant. If their season is to go awry, a lack of goals and teeth up front is what will cost them.
23 min: Forshaw gets a snap shot in, and Taylor Moore gets in the way. Leeds knocking on the door with far more vigour than their opponent at the moment.
21 min: The Leeds and Bristol City fans are engaging in banter, on a subject not to be discussed freely in these pages. When Stuart Dallas blams a ball way out of play when attempting a ‘diag’, Bielsa’s disgust is barely hidden.
19 min: Casilla goes on safari after a Dasilva ball is aimed at a speeding Weimann. It turns out to be the correct decision and Leeds eventually clear their lines. Weimann again gets caught out at the other end and is lucky that Barry Douglas could land nothing more than a corner, which is badly overhit by Phillips.
17 min: Leeds getting some joy down the right-hand side of the City defence. There seems to be a miscommunication between Hunt and Weimann.
15 min: The ball was chipped through by Jay Dasilva, but there were no takers. Neither side have created a chance as yet....but here’s a half-chance for Bamford. Douglas gives a napping Weimann the slip but the ball doesn’t make it to Bamford. Then, comes a real chance. A City mix-up presents Bamford with a sighter on goal. Bamford flashes his shot wide.
13 min: Diedhiou is the target for a lofted ball, and he is muscled out of it. Not an easy afternoon as a lone frontman for him.
11 min: Ironic cheers as a free-kick goes Leeds’ way after a foul on Bamford. Why? Don’t ask me.
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10 min: Bielsa in consultation with one of his assistants, who may actually be the translator from before. Leeds have gone flat already. Tired after pre-season?
8 min: City stepping this up a bit, after that circumspect start. Bielsa is sat on his bucket, and chunnering away to himself.
6 min: Josh Brownhill and Kasey Palmer force a free-kick from a retreating Leeds defence. Who will take? Palmer takes the call, and hits it straight at Casilla.
5 min: Only one debutant for Leeds in Ben White at the back, filling the not inconsiderable shoes of Pontus Jansson. Leeds are doing most of the passing, with City happy to sit back.
3 min: The Leeds fans are in full voice. Their squad may be thin, and getting thinner, but at this time of the season hope springs if not eternally, then initially...Patrick Bamford chases the ball down and Bristol keeper Bentley has to hack away.
1 min: Early attack from Leeds but it comes to naught. Kasey Palmer steps out to clear the danger.
And away we go....with Leeds taking the kick-off...
Ok, here come the teams and here comes the season for Bristol City and Leeds United. This, by the way is Leeds’ centenary season. Look up the story of Leeds City to find out why the club was not formed until 1919.
100 years 🔥 Still marching on! pic.twitter.com/SgW4OIqot9
— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 4, 2019
Marcelo Bielsa speaks, via a translator.
[On why he stayed]The proposal of the club, the quality of what we can do. The first thing is to try again and get the things we deserve. And at the same time I believe in the goal of this club: to get a promotion
[On losing players]These are four players we have to lose get the financial fair play, we decided to have a squad with 18 payers. We have difficulties because Kemar Roofe, who we wanted to be part of the 18, will probably leave.
Here’s a reminder of yesterday’s action from the EFL. It didn’t disappoint.
The Bristol City manager, Lee Johnson, speaks.
It’s a good test for both sides; Leeds are a fantastic side and a big club. [On players leaving] Unless you are a top-six club you are at the mercy of that. It is fantastic that players are getting the opportunity to go from Bristol City to the Premier League. We are in a good position, we have a good owner. We get to use the money. I look forward to bringing in some other payers soon.
Talking of Ben, here’s his Championship preview and what he had to say about today’s teams.
Several clubs will fancy their chances of breaking into the top six but Bristol City are among the best equipped. They have made several eye-catching additions, with Jay Dasilva and Tomas Kalas arriving permanently from Chelsea, joining a vibrant team determined to improve after knocking on the door last season.
Leeds United, too, possess ample bite, despite Marcelo Bielsa sanctioning the departure of Pontus Jansson. As Leeds flailed in April, the Argentinian stated his squad would struggle to reproduce the performances that propelled them from 13th to third but Bielsa was doing himself a disservice. Bielsa has tickled a small squad – Helder Costa, Jack Harrison and Ben White have arrived on loan – but after a brutal pre-season, including a trip to Sydney, triple and even quadruple sessions, they are down to bare bones after injuries to Luke Ayling and Kemar Roofe and will start with one fit senior striker, Patrick Bamford. If Bielsa were not in situ, Leeds’s hand would be considerably weaker.
Bit of Bristol City news from our Ben Fisher.
#BristolCity are closing on the signing of Monaco's Han-Noah Massengo. 18-year-old midfielder, made Champions League debut last season. Steve Lansdown, talking to @bbcbristolsport, says he is "hopeful deal will go through" but medical and other bits and pieces to go yet.
— Ben Fisher (@benfisherj) August 4, 2019
Those teams in analogue fashion:
Bristol City: Bentley, Hunt, Kalas, Moore, Dasilva, Pack, Brownhill, O’Dowda, Weimann, Palmer, Diedhiou
Subs: Wollacott, Baker, Taylor, Szomidcs, Eliasson, Paterson, Rowe
Leeds: Casilla, Dallas, Cooper, White, Douglas, Phillips, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez, Harrison, Bamford
Subs: Miazek, Davis, Alioski, Gotts, Bogusz, Clarke, Costa
Here are the teams
🚨 Your #BristolCity team is in. 🚨#BRCLEE pic.twitter.com/2O4t4gX66K
— Bristol City FC (@BristolCity) August 4, 2019
📋 | #LUFC Starting XI to face Bristol City at Ashton Gate:
— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 4, 2019
Casilla, Douglas, Cooper, White, Dallas, Phillips, Klich, Forshaw, Hernandez, Harrison, Bamford
Preamble
Is there a manager more prone to secondseasonitis than Marcelo Bielsa? He hasn’t actually stayed with any club for more than two years, though he had far lengthier spells with the Chilean and Argentinian national teams. Therefore, is this a season to fear for Leeds fans? Was last season a one-shot deal denied by the arch-enemy in Frank Lampard’s Derby County? Leeds were a delight for much of last season, not only in terms of the football they played, but also in their sheer unpredictability, oscillating between lengthy runs of victories and then runs of losses. In truth, and despite the many advocates he has in football’s literati, it was never quite the same once Christmas came and the tiredness began to settle in, as is likely to happen for any group of players put through multiple training sessions while their contemporaries get to rest up in their cinema rooms at home.
There is a school of thought that Bielsa is someone whose ideas are best carried out by others - Guardiola and Pochettino come readily to mind - in the fashion of the Byrds and Jimi Hendrix covering Bob Dylan songs and making them palatable, hit records. Thing is that Dylan wasn’t too bad on his own, either, and neither is Bielsa a bad manager. But, like his Bobness these days, you never quite know what you are going to get other than something enigmatic, sometimes difficult and only sometimes rewarding.
(Apologies to Bristol City, a good team who went close themselves last season and can do so again, but that has been the Bielsa effect on the Championship; he has to be talked about. And it probably won’t last much longer so let’s talk about him while we can.)
The kick-off is at 4.30pm UK time, which clashes, somewhat oddly, with the second half of the Charidee Shield. Who comes up with these schedules?
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