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Former Chelsea star Craig Burley was left stunned to learn Leeds United registered more efforts on goal than the Blues on Sunday, insisting they never looked the more dangerous side in the FA Cup semi-final clash.
Leeds and Chelsea went head to head at Wembley on Sunday for a place in the FA Cup final against Manchester City, with Blues captain Enzo Fernandez netting the only goal in a 1-0 victory.
The breakthrough came in the first half, with the Stamford Bridge side dominating with 65 per cent possession and leading six shots to four, a surprise given the Whites’ momentum and a London outfit that had dismissed Liam Rosenior just last week.
A tactical reshuffle from Daniel Farke after the break handed Leeds a foothold in the contest, but despite their brighter spell, they managed just two efforts on target and failed to make them count, as they ended the game with ten shots to the Blues’ eight.
Looking over the post match statistics, Burley was told that Leeds had registered more shots at goal than Chelsea, something which hugely surprised him.
He pointed to the xG metric as evidence Leeds should have carried greater danger, yet stressed that their performance ultimately lacked a cutting edge and never truly felt convincing in front of goal.
Burley said post-match on ESPN FC (0:25): “Did Leeds really have 10 efforts on goal?
| Chelsea | Leeds United |
|---|---|
| Possession – 55% | Possession – 45% |
| Shots – 8 | Shots – 10 |
| Shots on target – 2 | Shots on target – 3 |
“Well, that tells you.
“Look at the xG, you know Leeds are supposed to be more of a threat.
“It just didn’t feel that way, did it?”
Former top flight star Stewart Robson, too, criticised the Yorkshire side’s lack of attacking clarity and direction, pointing to repeated poor decision-making in the first half as evidence of a broader absence of structured patterns of play.
The 61-year-old further highlighted their ineffective build-up, noting how possession repeatedly moved backwards without progression, although he added that Farke’s second half tactical shift made Leeds more competitive.
He said: “Well, there was once when [Pascal] Struijk could have played the ball, [Gabriel] Gudmundsson made a good run down the left-hand side, and I think 36,000 people told him where he should have passed it, and he went back the other way.
“They had no idea of patterns of play in that first half.
“Leeds, when they had the ball at the back, where were they going to go with it?
“They went into [Ethan] Ampadu, Ampadu went back to the centre half.
“The centre half turned around, [Jaka] Bijol, probably why they were taken off, but change of system made them more competitive.”
Brenden Aaronson, who fluffed a golden chance after breaking through on goal early in the first half, was branded a disappointment by Simon Walton, who also observed that Dominic Calvert-Lewin looked leggy and off the pace, urging the German boss to have a plan B for such moments.
With four league matches remaining, Leeds will look to finish strongly despite the setback, with their Premier League status all but secured as they sit six points clear of the bottom three and prepare to face already relegated Burnley at Elland Road on Friday evening.
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