Ipswich Town vs Leeds United. Sky Bet Championship.
Portman RoadAttendance29,606.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Ipswich Town and Leeds United at Portman Road as Daniel Farke's side secured victory in a seven-goal thriller on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday 26 August 2023 18:39, UK
Leeds picked up their first three points of the season, coming back from a goal down to win a thriller at Ipswich 4-3.
It was the first loss of the Sky Bet Championship campaign for the former leaders, ending their 100 per cent record and a record-breaking run of 21 games without defeat.
A dynamic opening 20 minutes at Portman Road saw four goals, all coming from Leeds players.
Joe Rodon scored an own goal to give Ipswich the lead, before the visitors replied with strikes from Georginio Rutter, Wilfried Gnonto and debutant Joel Piroe.
Ipswich kept the game alive when Nathan Broadhead netted for Ipswich with virtually the last kick of a pulsating first half.
However, Leeds struck the killer blow in the 75th minute when Luis Sinisterra scored a fourth goal.
Although Conor Chaplin pulled one back for Ipswich in added time, they could not find an equaliser.
The hosts took the lead in the seventh minute when Kayden Jackson followed a lightning run down the left with a cross that took a big deflection off Rodon and beat goalkeeper Illan Meslier.
Leeds equalised three minutes later with Rutter's first goal for the club. The £36m signing from Hoffenheim weaved his way through the penalty area and saw his shot go in off the base of the left-hand post.
The visitors took the lead in the 14th minute when Sinisterra's cross found Gnonto, who drifted behind Leif Davis to scramble the ball home from close range.
It was 3-1 to Leeds with 19 minutes on the clock when home goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky could only parry a shot from Sinisterra, with Piroe - who joined from Swansea this week - converting the rebound.
Ipswich probed the Leeds defence in a bid to get back into the game and Broadhead got them a second goal after seven minutes of added time. He produced a cool finish after Jackson nicked the ball ahead of Meslier and pulled it back from the byline for the Welsh international to score.
Sinisterra had a wonderful opportunity to extend the lead for Leeds when he was found alone in the Ipswich penalty area but he shot straight at Hladky.
The visitors posed a threat on the counter-attack and Hladky had to divert a first-time shot from Piroe behind for a corner before Colombia international winger Sinisterra breezed past substitute Brandon Williams to make it 4-2.
Chaplin drilled a low shot into the bottom corner of the net with seconds remaining and soon after the 2,008 visiting Leeds fans in a crowd of 29,606 were pleased to hear the final whistle.
Ipswich's Kieran McKenna:
"I thought there was a lot more good than bad (from us), there are so many positives to take in the game. I thought we were the better and more dominant team in so many aspects of the game on and off the ball and there's lots to be pleased about. On another day the game could have went differently.
"There was of course things for us to improve, big lessons to learn. Of course disappointment with the goals that we conceded in the first half. But that's part of the adjustment about playing against a much better team, with much higher players - we'll improve and we'll learn from those mistakes and continue working to get better. I think overall there are so many things to give us confidence."
Leeds' Daniel Farke:
"I wasn't too concerned about these two decisions (to pick Gnonto and Sinisterra) to be honest because I've watched them during the training week and they looked really, really sharp and disciplined and I had a really good feeling with this decision. I was in general pleased with our offensive firepower, especially because we played a side who just conceded one goal over their first four games.
"It's a difficult place to come here, they played full of confidence and excited the home fans in the stadium and for us then to dig in and to grind out a result and to score four times is really, really good and especially the offensive play on the scoresheet. I am pleased for my offensive players that they showed real quality today and also clinical finishes and it's good for the mood, good for the confidence, good for the table, good for them also to be off the mark in terms of goals and I am happy with this."
