Eddie Nketiah, Gaetano Berardi and Mateusz Klich strike for Leeds in victory over Salford on Tuesday night.
Tuesday 13 August 2019 22:43, UK
Leeds cruised into the second round of the Carabao Cup after a comfortable 3-0 win at Salford City.
Watched on by four members of the 'Class of 92' - Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, Phil Neville and Gary Neville, who are part-owners at the club - at the Peninsula Stadium, Salford could do little about the quality of their Championship opposition.
Eddie Nketiah scored his first Leeds goal just before the break, while Gaetano Berardi and Mateusz Klich sealed their passage with two more after half-time.
Salford were the better side in the first half, but Leeds grew into the game and eventually took the lead just before the break.
It was a fine move to open Salford up after 43 minutes, as they worked it from left to right before Jamie Shackleton fed Helder Costa in behind, and his low ball across the box was calmly converted by Nketiah.
Five minutes after half-time, Leeds took control. Costa got his second assist of the evening as his low corner towards the near post was met by Berardi, who got across his own to turn the ball home.
And in the 58th minute, the Championship side added their third. A speculative clearance following a Salford corner found the run of Klich, who took a couple of excellent touches to get into the box before his curling effort, via a slight deflection, beat the dive of Chris Neal.
A classy display from the midfielder, who proved again why is he is so important to this Leeds side with a controlling display. Even as Marcelo Bielsa made seven changes, he proved he is undroppable.
Graham Alexander: "I think we did well and I was really pleased with the players tonight. The goal just before the half-time made the change for them but we kept them at arms length before then.
"We said at half-time to keep it tight and don't go chasing anything, but obviously the second goal was really disappointing from our perspective."
Marcelo Bielsa: "We had a normal performance. We didn't play badly or well. We increased the tempo in the second half and we improved.
"We could have scored more, but at the same time we conceded more chances than we wanted."
Both sides are back in action at 3pm on Saturday. Leeds head to Wigan in the Championship, while Salford host Port Vale in League Two.
