‘Incredible’ Ilia Gruev footage emerges live on Sky Sports in Leeds v Southampton
Ilia Gruev was praised for his role in a goal-line clearance as Leeds United crashed to a 2-1 defeat against Southampton at Elland Road by Sky Sports pundit Andy Hinchcliffe.
The Whites found themselves 2-1 down after Adam Armstrong and Will Smallbone struck either side of Joel Piroe’s finish, but it was almost 3-1 before the break when a corner was floated in and not dealt with properly before midfielder Gruev was able to clear it off the line.
And reacting to replay footage while on commentary live on Sky Sports [4 May, 12:59], Hinchcliffe praised the moment as “incredible”.
“It’s Gruev, he somehow manages to smuggle the ball away,” he said. “Incredible.”
Incredible moment shouldn’t be necessary for Leeds United
As great as it was to see Gruev clear that ball in the moment, it should never have come to that and the defending was a big reason why the team ended up missing out on automatic promotion.
Prior to the game against Southampton, Leeds had conceded ten goals in their last five games and only ten goals in their previous 19 games before that. That shows where the issues have come from.
A lack of concentration and a lack of effort from the team, who seemingly felt as though the job was done when they caught Leicester City at the top of the table following an amazing run to begin 2024.
But the Championship is brutal, and as proven, not over until it’s over. Those “incredible” moments need to not be so frequent, with the team needing to do their job in order to navigate a difficult situation.
Now they must pick themselves up to go again against Norwich next week as they take an alternative route, but with more poor defending they can surely kiss the Premier League goodbye.
In other Leeds news, player ratings from the Southampton clash as one star stinks out Elland Road.
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