Leeds United picked up their first win of the 2024/25 campaign with a 2-0 victory away at Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough on Friday night.
The Whites had drawn both of their opening games in the Championship, 3-3 with Portsmouth and 0-0 with West Bromwich Albion, and finally picked up three points in Yorkshire.
Brenden Aaronson opened the scoring with a composed finish in the first half of the match before Dan James' dinked hit secured the win in the second 45.
Mateo Joseph, who won the Sky Sports Player of the Match award, enjoyed a fantastic evening with his all-round centre-forward performance for Daniel Farke's side.
Mateo Joseph's performance against Sheffield Wednesday
The Spain U21 international has been tasked with leading the line for Leeds at the start of this Championship season and looked assured in the role on Friday.
He was heavily involved in the build-up to Aaronson's opener as he made a terrific run down the side of the defender and then chopped inside, drawing contact for what could have been a penalty, to lay the ball off for the midfielder to score.
The 20-year-old ace then provided a more deliberate assist for the second goal for Leeds as his sensational through ball split open the Wednesday defence and sent James one-on-one with James Beadle.
Whilst the academy graduate enjoyed a superb and productive night at Hillsborough, Joseph was not the only star performer for Farke as central defender Pascal Struijk was just as important to the team.
Pascal Struijk's excellence on Friday
The towering central defender lined up alongside Joe Rodon at the back and caught the eye with his calmness in possession and his dominance off the ball.
Struijk had a game-high 133 touches of the ball and completed 94% of his attempted passes, whilst creating one chance from centre-back, and this shows that he was comfortable and reliable with the ball at his feet, which helped Leeds to control the tempo of the game.
Out of possession, the left-footed titan won 88% (7/8) of his defensive duels, on the deck and in the air combined, and contributed to the clean sheet with a number of vital interventions.
Sofascore rating
7.4
7.9
Duels won
5
7
Clearances
5
11
Tackles
0
2
Interceptions
0
2
As you can see in the table above, Struijk outperformed his centre-back partner for duels won, clearances, tackles, and interceptions against Wednesday.
This suggests that the Dutch ace, who was handed a match rating of 8/10 by LeedsLive reporter Jack Flintham, was the star performer at the back for Farke, as he always seemed to be in the right place at the right time to stop promising attacks for the opposition.
Therefore, the former Ajax man was as important as Joseph on Friday night as his superb defending helped to keep a clean sheet – for the second league match in succession – and provided the attackers with a solid platform to build from and win the game.
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