On Saturday, Leeds United defeated Schalke 2-0 in a pre-season friendly. Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe scored the goals.
Leeds United defeated Schalke 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, their second match in three days against German opponents. Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe were both on target as they kept each other on their toes ahead of the new season in the triumph at the Kumpel+Hellmeister Arena near Hamm, Germany.
The Whites started in the familiar 4-2-3-1 formation that Daniel Farke had established. Patrick Bamford, Crysencio Summerville, and Daniel James all missed out due to varying phases of injury and recovery. Max Wober and Jayden Bogle made their first starts of the summer. The former lined up to the left of Joe Rodon in center defence, while the latter started at right back.
The same three started behind Joel Piroe on Wednesday, but this time Mateo Joseph led the line. Brenden Aaronson and Wilfried Gnonto switched sides frequently during the first half.
Leeds pressed high in the early stages but did not put the Schalke goalkeeper under too much pressure. Georginio Rutter sent Aaronson in behind for a half-look, but he was dispossessed, while Gnonto dribbled in from the right but saw his effort blocked at the near post.
Within the first 15 minutes of Schalke turning the screw, Illan Meslier’s distribution came under the microscope. Two passes to Bogle were either under-hit and slow, or hacked and too high for the right-back to compete with.
The Germans capitalized on the game’s first notable opportunity. Wober pursued Kenan Karaman deep into Schalke territory for a goal kick, but the striker recovered faster and beat Wober on the run back into the Leeds half.
Schalke took advantage of the defensive gap and played a pass in behind Karaman, but Meslier stretched himself effectively and got a boot to it one-on-one. Ethan Ampadu was also not hesitant to throw his foot in throughout the first 20 minutes, incurring at least two fouls with robust but late challenges.
Rodon was able to remind everyone of his best last-ditch tackling from last season. Karaman dropped deep and Moussa Sylla ran into the vacated space and received the ball in behind. Rodon stayed with the striker and slid in, taking man and ball inside his own box expertly.
In the 29th minute, Rutter came deep for a Leeds free-kick in his own half, but his first touch was heavy and Schalke nicked it. They drove at the United box with Paul Seguin taking a drive at goal, but Ampadu was equal to it with a committed sliding block.
Two minutes later, he was redeeming himself. Rutter charged down a diagonal attempt from the Schalke backline. He went one-two with Aaronson and burst into space down the left channel and carried into the box, but his cross-cum-shot didn’t connect well.
There was a rare yellow card in the 32nd minute as Wober went flying into Sylla just inside the United half. There were vocal protests from the Schalke side as he connected with the striker, who had stayed down. Ampadu had a word with the referee, but the yellow came nonetheless.
The best Leeds effort of the first half eventually came from Gnonto, who watched a cleared corner all the way to his right peg outside the box. It wasn’t a fierce connection, but it was on target and needed a block on the line from Janik Bachmann.
It was a decent period of pressure for the Whites, who saw Mateo Joseph and Bogle repeat their link-up of Wednesday. The right-back battled to the byline and again got a low cross into the near post for the Spaniard, but his effort was wide.
Anton Donkor went into the book in the 38th minute for Schalke after he pulled back Bogle’s shirt as the right-back threatened to burst away on a Leeds counter from what had been another good attack from the natives.
We saw Rutter at his best with one of the drives we saw so often last season in the 41st minute. From the right-side touchline, inside his own half, the Frenchman turned Donkor and drove all the way into the centre of the pitch, 30 yards from Schalke’s goal.
He then picked out Aaronson with a perfect pass in behind, but the American’s one-on-one effort was tame and easily saved as the first half drew to a close. There were four changes at the break from Farke, including goalkeeper Karl Darlow.
Sam Byram was among those to settle into the speed of the game very quickly. He battled superbly down the left and stood out by reading a dangerous ball into the Leeds box that was cleared by him as everyone else was ball-watching.
The first noteworthy chance of the second half was carried at Rutter’s feet from the edge of his own box. He broke away from a Schalke corner with Gnonto and Aaronson for company. The Frenchman went the length of the pitch virtually before feeding the Italian down the right channel with a perfect weight of pass.
Gnonto drove at goal, but saw his effort pushed away at the near post. There was not much longer to wait for the opening goal, however. Joseph was, again, on target with his third strike of the week.
Joe Rothwell and Pascal Struijk traded passes off an attacking free-kick before the former curled a diagonal pass down the right side for Bogle to cross first time. Joseph was lurking at the back post for a header into the net.
The goal appeared to primarily benefit the Whites. As Schalke pushed more men forward, Leeds exploited them on the break. Ilia Gruev lofted a beautiful ball into the space beyond Rutter, who gathered wide right. He came inside, beat his man, and drove the ball to the near post, but the goalie gathered after spilling the ferocious attempt.
A second goal came in the 65th minute, with newly-introduced Joel Piroe keeping Joseph honest in the race that begins on August 10. Rutter, who was purring down the right side at this point, delivered a fantastic cross into the back stick for the Dutch striker to head home.
A rare lapse in the United backline came from Rodon in the 71st minute. With time on the ball, he still gave it away to Bachmann. Schalke broke on an unprepared Leeds from there, but Rodon stayed patient and stepped in at the right moment to snuff the danger out before an apology to his team-mates.
As more changes came, with the match won, it began to become a little stop-start. Schalke had a few more looks at goal, but Leeds just about kept them at arm’s length to see out their second win of the week.
Leeds United’s starting lineup includes Illan Meslier (h/t), Jayden Bogle (James Debayo 72), Joe Rodon, Max Wober (Pascal Strujk h/t), Junior Firpo (Sam Byram h/t), Ethan Ampadu (Ilia Gruev h/t), Joe Rothwell (Sam Chambers 84), Wilfried Gnonto (Luca Thomas 84), Georginio Rutter (Charlie Crew 72), Brenden Aaronson (Joel Piroe 57), and Mateo Joseph (Joe Gelhardt 72).
Alex Cairns was an unused substitute.
Goals: Joseph 57, Piroe 65.
