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Championship | Gameweek 44
Jul 16, 2020 at 5pm UK
Elland Road
Barnsley

Leeds
1 - 0
Barnsley

Sollbauer (28' og.)
Hernandez (90+2')
FT(HT: 1-0)

Sollbauer (90+4')

Marcelo Bielsa rejects PL talk despite moving to within one point of promotion

Marcelo Bielsa rejects PL talk despite moving to within one point of promotion
© Reuters
A 1-0 victory over Barnsley left the leaders five points clear.

Marcelo Bielsa has targeted the Sky Bet Championship title after watching his side edge closer to automatic promotion with a nervy 1-0 win against Barnsley.

Barnsley defender Michael Sollbauer's own goal in the first half proved decisive, lifting Leeds five points clear of second-placed West Brom with two games left.

The gap to third-placed Brentford is six points and if they and West Brom both fail to win at the weekend, Leeds will go up as champions before their next match at Derby on Sunday.

When asked if promotion was the only objective or if he wanted to win the title, the Argentinian said smiling: "This question has only one answer."

Otherwise, Bielsa maintained his refusal to discuss the prospect of life in the Premier League.

"We are not yet promoted and until we can resolve this problem mathematically, we cannot talk about this," he said.

Leeds can count themselves lucky to take all three points after being pushed all the way by their local rivals.

The Reds had plenty of chances to cause a mighty upset. Jacob Brown and Mads Andersen went close to opening the scoring in the first half.

In the second period, Conor Chaplin and Callum Styles both fired shots narrowly wide, while Barnsley goalkeeper Jack Walton pulled off an excellent save to deny Patrick Bamford.

Bielsa said: "I want to recognise the work of our opponent today because they tried in every way possible and possibly deserved a different result.

"That is the comment I made (to Barnsley manager Gerhard Struber) at the end.

"It was a very tough match according to the mental balance. It was difficult for us to defend and attack."

Leeds winger Helder Costa was carried off the field on a stretcher and Bielsa confirmed he had sustained a rib injury.

Bielsa said he would not be watching either West Brom or Brentford's next matches.

"No, we always think that what we are able to get depends on us," he added.

Barnsley boss Struber said he was proud of his players' display, but that his side needed points and not performances in their bid for survival.

"Performance-wise it went very well, especially in the second half," said Struber, who replaced fellow German Daniel Stendel at Oakwell in November last year.

"But the killer thing is to score goals and that's the key issue at the moment.

"I'm very proud of my players for this performance, but in our situation we need to pick up points."

Struber insisted his players still had everything to play for and would fight to the end.

"It's a young group and many players will never give up," he added.

"We will keep going and in these last two games we still have a chance to stay in the league."

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3Ipswich TownIpswich38249580493181
4Southampton36227773472673
5West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom381991059362366
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8Coventry CityCoventry3715121059431657
9Preston North EndPreston37168134954-556
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11Cardiff CityCardiff38165174351-853
12Sunderland38146184845348
13Watford381212145351248
14Bristol City38138174245-347
15Swansea CitySwansea381210164858-1046
16Millwall381110173650-1443
17Blackburn RoversBlackburn38119185164-1342
18Plymouth ArgylePlymouth381011175462-841
19Stoke CityStoke38118193553-1841
20Queens Park RangersQPR381010183650-1440
21Birmingham CityBirmingham38109194259-1739
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23Sheffield WednesdaySheff Weds38115223061-3138
24Rotherham UnitedRotherham38311243077-4720


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