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Leeds hammer struggling Southampton 3-0

Sports Desk, Feb 23 (efe-epa)- Leeds United beat Southampton 3-0 Tuesday to climb into the top half of the Premier League table while the Saints lost for the seventh time in their last eight outings.

Unusually for Marcelo Bielsa’s attack-minded squad, Leeds had less than half of the ball and took fewer shots than the visitors.

Indeed, Southampton appeared to grab the lead in the 45th minute when Che Adams found the back of the net after the Saints caught Leeds napping by taking a free kick quickly. But the referee disallowed the goal because the visitors restarted play before he blew the whistle.

Southampton had already seen a likely goal taken away earlier when VAR overruled the initial award of a penalty after an encounter between Nathan Tella and Leeds’ Diego Llorente.

Raphinha had the best chance of the opening period for Leeds, thwarted by Oriel Romeu with a superb tackle Patrick Bamford broke through for Leeds two minutes into the second period, scoring his 13th goal of the campaign.

Stuart Dallas made it 2-0 in the 75th minute and Raphinha added a third goal 10 minutes later with a magnificent direct free kick.

Leeds United improve to 10th place on 35 points. Southampton are 14th with 30 points, 8 above the drop zone.

“We gave up in the second half and this is not what I like,” Saints coach Ralph Hasenhüttl said afterward. “We are losing and this is not perfect. Leeds have good one against one quality and they showed our weakness. We could not manage them – it’s tough to take.”

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