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Phil Hay: Mateusz Klich's face was 'smashed to bits', still got among scuffles for Leeds United
Leeds United midfielder got into the middle of a clash between the benches against Wolves despite having his face “smashed to bits” says Phil Hay.
The Pole was one of four Whites players withdrawn through injury on a wild night at Molineux, as Jesse Marsch’s side came from 2-0 down to score another winner after 90 minutes.
An increasingly bad tempered match, which saw Raul Jimenez sent off in a collision with Illan Meslier, threatened to boil over as the benches clashed late on, but despite having suffered what his manager called “a concussion” the midfielder was at the centre of the fray.
In The Athletic Hay wrote: “Mateusz Klich’s face was smashed to bits, badly bruised in a collision with Robin Koch.
“There were confrontations on the pitch, scuffles on the touchline, a clash between the dugouts which Klich got in the middle of – apparently deducing that the damage to his face had already been done.”
Night to remember
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It was one of those nights where everybody was involved somehow, even if they never actually featured in the game.
Returning stars Kalvin Phillips and Liam Cooper, as well as others withdrawn through injury like Patrick Bamford and Meslier were hounding officials and shouting encouragement from the sidelines.
And the entire squad left the bench to join in the celebrations when Luke Ayling scored the winner.
Bruno Lage and the hosts’ staff grew increasingly irate at what they saw as the injustice of having lost Jimenez to a 50-50 challenge.
They had a comfortable lead at half time, after a second goal in the 11th minute of first-half stoppage time, and understandably could not believe where it was disappearing to.
Marsch attempted to diffuse tensions on the touchline on one of the multiple times that the two teams representatives reacted to each other.
But everything from half time onwards showed an admirable team spirit, not least via Klich throwing himself into the centre of the scuffles, with a facial injury.
Whether he should have been able to, apparently having suffered a concussion, is another matter, but not one that anyone was minded to consider at the end of a crazy game.
In other Leeds United news, a current Whites player and a former one both posted profane messages online following the drama.