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Key events
49 min: Leeds have the ball and are crossing relentlessly into the box. United’s defence are standing firm but the visitors are not offering much going forward so far in this second half.
47 min: Another excellent defensive header from Yoro at the back post clears the danger for Manchester United. The Frenchman is staying at right-back, by the way, with Mazraoui tucking in as a direct replacement for Martínez at centre-back.
Peeeeeeeeeeeep!
We’re underway again at Elland Road.
Manchester United make a change: Mazraoui on for Lisandro Martínez. Interesting.
Half-time reading, courtesy of Jonathan Wilson.
A glance at the other half-time scores seem to back up Jonathan’s argument. Sunderland and Crystal Palace both travelled away for gruelling Europa League assignments on Thursday and have again struggling in the Premier League.
Palace fielded a first-choice side in Lyon, and were beaten by the French side, They look knackered at Brighton, who are fresh after winning in the Conference League with a largely second-string team.
Other half-time scores in the Premier League
Bournemouth 1-0 Sunderland
Brighton 3-0 Crystal Palace
Got a minute to spare? Why not try our daily Premier League trivia game, On the ball? Every day a star player past or present is hidden behind nine clues. How many will you need to identify them? It’s available in the Guardian apps.
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Half-time: Leeds United 0-1 Manchester United
Maguire again excellent in dispossessing Calvert-Lewin right before the half-time whistle, with the Leeds striker threatening United’s goal. Frantic and frenetic, this is a Proper Football Match.
45+2 min: I’d like to take a look at the cross count for Leeds come the end of this half. Nearly 20, I would guess, but it’s a Manchester United cross that has counted for the visitors.
45 min: Two minutes added on here. Leeds are probing with the ball but United seem content to defend deep and get to half-time.
43 min: Bruno Fernandes is left clutching his shoulder after clashing with Stach. Replays show there wasn’t much in it. The Manchester United man is going to be OK to continue.
41 min: Bogle drives into the Manchester United box with intent and sees a deflected shot ends up in the arms of Lammens. That could easily have squirted or deflected into the corner. Leeds are very much in this game.
39 min: Harry Maguire has been excellent, by the way. Composed on the ball, strong in the challenge. He and Yoro have dealt with everything that has come into the Manchester United box.
37 min: The cameras cut to Jason Wilcox, Manchester United’s director of football and a former Leeds United player, in the stands. Wilcox, sitting next to Omar Berrada and just in front of Sir Alex Ferguson, looks glum but he will have been impressed by this away performance so far. They have stood up to the physicality of Leeds, but there is plenty of time for the home side to change things.
GOAL! Leeds United 0-1 Manchester United (Mbeumo 35)
Mbeumo makes amends for his earlier miss! It’s the same combination, Tielemans from the right, crossing for the Cameroonian, who gets goal-side of Justin and wins the battle at the back post, steering a one-touch finish past Trafford!
33 min: Leeds press high but Manchester United beat the press with Diallo exchanging a one-two with Fernandes to stream away on the counter-attack. Diallo almost has a free run at goal, but Trafford streams out of the Leeds goal, fully committing to win the ball just inside his own half … and wins the ball! A crucial intervention from the Leeds goalkeeper and one he could not afford to get wrong. You have to say well played.
30 min: From a searching Manchester United corner, Maguire is the obvious target on the penalty spot, but the centre-back is double marked by Ampadu and Elvedi and there is nobody in red to stab home.
Golden chance for Mbeumo!
28 min: Mbeumo should score! Tielemans finds a pocket of space and crosses for the unmarked Mbeumo, who explicably heads wide from seven yards out. Where were the Leeds centre-backs? Mbeumo got enough power on the header but just mis-directed it wide of the near post as the cross came in from the right.
26 min: Here come the Leeds crosses, peppering the United penalty area. It’s quite clear to see what the game plan is. Yoro does well at the back post for Manchester United to clear the danger. A moment later, from a free-kick, Stach curls a delivery to the near post, Elvedi nods down into the ground and Lammens tips the ball away! Good save! The pressure on the visitors is building.
24 min: A good spell for Leeds. United can’t make it stick up top, with Mbeumo crowded out by the three Leeds centre backs and Ampadu mopping up everything in front of the home defence.
22 min: Gudmundsson had better watch it. Already on a yellow, Leeds’ Swedish left-wing back berates the referee for a decision that goes against him. We have seen second yellow cards for that sort of dissent. Play goes on.
20 min: No golden chances for either side but Leeds have wasted several good opportunities to cross after committing numbers forward into the Manchester United box. Bogle and Stach have the quality to hurt the visitors with their delivery, particularly with Calvert-Lewin waiting.
18 min: Gudmundsson is the next in the book for a late tackle on Santos, catching the Brazilian high on the ankle with his studs. “A bit more force and that could be a red card”, says Gary Neville on Sky Sports commentary. One yellow card for each team.
This match is not going end with a full complement of players, if things carry on like this.
16 min: Darren England is letting a lot go, with the referee waving play on despite both sets of players diving into tackles. Bruno Fernandes is VERY late on Muharemovic but play continues, with Stach wasting a good opportunity to either cross or shoot on a Leeds counter-attack. When the ball goes dead, England does caution Fernandes for the challenge. The Manchester United captain can really have no complaints, but he is giving the referee an earful about something.
14 min: No goals here but a quick glance at the other 2pm BST kick-offs: Bournemouth lead Sunderland by a goal and Brighton are 3-0 up against rivals Crystal Palace! Diego Gómez has just scored from the half-way line for the Seagulls!
12 min: Ampadu with a nasty challenge on Mbeumo, 30 yards from the Leeds goal. The Welshman popped his studs straight into the ankle of the Manchester United man. Ampadu escapes a booking.
10 min: Tanaka is late on Santos and Leeds send every player back to defend the set piece. Fernandes completely overcooks the delivery and Calvert-Lewin mops things up at the back post.
8 min: Looks like Fernandes and Mbeumo are interchanging, the latter switching from from the left wing to striker, then back out again to the flank.
6 min: Baleba is so important to Manchester United today, particularly with the visitors missing the physicality of Mainoo. The Cameroonian outmuscles Stach, rides a couple of challenges before running into Leeds traffic. A good start, though from the Manchester United No 20.
4 min: Baleba is sent flying in midfield by a strong challenge from Stach. Exactly the sort of tackle we would expect from a fixture of this magnitude.
2 min: Bruno Fernandes played off the right wing for Manchester United in midweek against Atlético. It looks like the Portuguese is playing centrally today as a false nine. Mbeumo off the left, Amad off the right. So a completely new-look attack for Carrick.
Peeeeeeeeeeeeep!
We’re underway in Yorkshire.
Elland Road is bouncing, of course it is.
“I don’t understand why Justin and Bogle are not in the discussion for England right-back,” emails Gary Stover. “That Farke has found a way to start them both must be a key to Leeds success. What do you think?”
Justin and Bogle are very good footballers. I’m not sure they would win England the European Championship in 20278. Reece James, Nico O’Reilly, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Lewis Hall might.
Daniel Farke, Leeds manager, is the next to speak to Sky Sports:
We have to make sure we give them nothing. We want to make sure the ball belongs to us, to press them high, to have possession.
“Just had great fun reading the Joy of Six article,” emails Richard Hirst. “My abiding memory of the 1972 Leeds 5-1 win is not the olé period at the end, but that the goals all seemed to be scored from inside the six yard box: they were wonderful team goals which ripped Man Utd to shreds. The fact that Allan Clarke, my hero from his Fulham days, was on the end of them only made it better.”
A bit more on those teams: Leeds are unchanged for the fifth game in a row. That’s hardly surprising, given their excellent form. Daniel Farke’s team were unlucky to narrowly lose at Arsenal last weekend.
Manchester United make two changes from the Champions League defeat at Atlético. Harry Maguire returns in place of Ayden Heaven, and Amad Diallo comes into the side instead of Marcus Rashford. Carlos Baleba makes his first Premier League start, while Matthijs de Ligt is in the squad for the first time since November 2025.
Michael Carrick was as dull as dishwater in his pre-match interview, but maybe that’s the point after a turbulent week. He spoke for a few minutes and these were the most exciting quotes:
It’s a fantastic game. We’ve come here to try and win the game. It’s a challenging place to come. I think we’ve got good balance throughout the team. Mainoo and Shaw were close-ish [to being fit] but not close enough.
Here’s Jonathan Liew on this week’s comments from Lisandro Martínez:
Leeds’ Ethan Ampadu, who captains the club for the 100th time, speaks to Sky Sports:
We know what this game means. We know that they are not too happy at the moment but we know that they might show a reaction. But we know what we need to do to win this game.
Manchester United ran five kilometres less than Tottenham in their 1-1 draw last weekend. This is an interesting read from Opta’s Ryan Benson on if Premier League teams really need to run more to win matches. The answer is not straightforward.
It’s also fascinating to see that Leeds’ running stats from last season, only Manchester City covered more distance.
A reminder of what this fixture means to both teams:
The teams: Lisandro Martínez starts for Manchester United!
Leeds 3-4-2-1: Trafford; Justin, Elvedi, Muharemovic; Bogle, Ampadu, Tanaka, Gudmundsson; Stach, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin.
Subs: Zetterer, Longstaff, Wilson, Aaronson, Nmecha, Bijol, Bahoya, Bard, Gruev.
Manchester United 4-2-3-1: Lammens; Yoro, Maguire, Martinez, Dalot; Santos, Baleba; Fernandes, Tielemans, Diallo; Mbeumo.
Subs: Darlow, Mazraoui, de Ligt, Mount, Rashford, Cunha, Zirkzee, Lacey, Amass.
Referee: Darren England (South Yorkshire)
Preamble
With apologies to Brighton and Palace fans, welcome to the game of the weekend, in the Premier League at least.
Today’s clash between two Uniteds is dripping with narrative and consequence, not least because they are two of the biggest, most historic rivals in England. Leeds have enjoyed a fine start to the season and will leapfrog Liverpool into fifth with victory today while Manchester United are enduring their worst league start in 40 years, with manager Michael Carrick under severe pressure to save his job. The former midfielder has been fighting fires all week after Lisandro Martínez poured petrol on the club’s Champions League defeat in midweek with his post-match incendiary comments about the club’s hierarchy and a lack of investment – remarks for which he has now apologised, sort of.
Carrick has attempted to smooth things over, claiming things are all resolved between player and Manchester United’s director of football Jason Wilcox, and confirmed that Martínez is in the squad for the trip to Elland Road; the 5ft9in centre back will be hoping to do a whole lot better against Dominic Calvert-Lewin than he did against another Dominic in Tottenham’s Solanke, with the latter bullying Martínez to score a late equaliser for 10-man Spurs at Old Trafford next week. If Martínez wants the squad to be improved, he might find himself on the chopping block, the Argentinian’s contract expires at the end of this season, although Manchester United do have an option to end it by another 12 months.
Leeds will be desperate to compound Manchester United’s misery but have not beaten their rivals on their own patch in over 24 years. It was another Manchester United centre back that endured a tough time that day in September 2002, with Rio Ferdinand booed every time he touched the ball following his after his move across the Pennines, before the former Leeds defender lost Harry Kewell for the only goal of the game.
Plenty at stake, then. We’ll have team news for you shortly. Roll on kick-off at 2pm BST.
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