Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch said it was “hard to put into words” how his side came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat Bournemouth 4-3 at Elland Road on Saturday.
Marsch was staring at a seventh loss in 13 games this season when Leeds fell two goals behind at the start of the second half. But three unanswered goals — from Sam Greenwood, Liam Cooper and Crysencio Summerville — secured a dramatic victory.
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“It’s hard to put into words and to describe exactly what happened,” Marsch said. “At half-time we tried to install belief in the team that we could still manage to find the result.
“And I told them after the match that the best part was I could tell by the looks on their faces that I didn’t have to convince them, they believed it.”
Marsch came under pressure when Leeds lost four games in a row last month and were hovering above the relegation zone but a 2-1 win at Liverpool last week and Saturday’s victory moved Leeds up to 12th in the standings.
The victory marked the first time Leeds had won two Premier League games in a row this season and fans celebrated by letting off fireworks outside Elland Road.
“The fans have the right to opinion and emotion. We all do. The sport requires that. My focus is entirely on making sure the group is strong,” Marsch added to the BBC.
“At half-time I said to them not to be fazed by the negativity in the stadium and stay focused on the tactical aspect of what we are trying to bring, get into the game more and more and we will win. We did that.”
Marsch heaped particular praise on the young trio of Summerville, Greenwood and Wilfried Gnonto after they played a starring role in the team’s second-half comeback.
Summerville earned a third-minute penalty and scored the 84th-minute winner that was assisted by Gnonto, while Greenwood scored a superb long-range goal to reduce the deficit before contributing to the equaliser from a corner.
All three players are aged between 19 and 21 and they turned things around for Leeds, spurring on the hosts after staring down the possibility of a costly defeat.
“The first half wasn’t our best. We tried to change a few things during the half and then some changes at half-time and we believed we could still win the match. We dug a bigger hole to go down 3-1,” Marsch said.
“Sam Greenwood comes on and plays really well to get the goal. Willy Gnonto is a spark within our team at the moment. He plays really mature in the play to set up the fourth.
“And of course, Cry Summerville continues to grow and get better. We have a lot of good young players and we need to continue to invest in them.”
Information from Reuters was used in this report.