Leeds strides closer to Premier League safety
Leeds United defeated Burnley 3-1 to put itself on the brink of retaining its Premier League status for another season.
Goals from Anton Stach, Noah Okafor and Dominic Calvert-Lewin had Elland Road rocking, and Leeds can now confirm its safety with a win against Tottenham Hotspur in its next match.
Stach, who made his first start since being sidelined with an ankle injury, got things underway after eight minutes as he was afforded too much space when receiving Jaka Bijol's pass and picked out the bottom-right corner.
Daniel Farke's side failed to build on its fast start in the first half, but was back on the front foot after the break.
Okafor added a second for the home side, sweeping in from Jayden Bogle's cross after the full-back was found by Calvert-Lewin's backheel.
The England international then scored himself four minutes later, reacting fastest to a rebound in the six-yard box after Ao Tanaka's strike was parried by Martin Dubravka.
Moments after Lucas Pires had a close-range goal disallowed for offside, Loum Tchaouna scored a consolation for the Clarets in the 71st minute, but it was not enough to spark a comeback for the already-relegated side.
While the result was a positive one for Leeds, Calvert-Lewin admitted he is not looking past the end of the domestic season.
"I'll be honest, it [the FIFA World Cup] is not something I look to," he said.
"Most of my focus has been making sure we stay in the Premier League. That was objective number one, and until that is mathematically done, our job is not done, and my job is not done.
"A byproduct of doing well for your club is getting closer to the national team, so I can just keep scoring goals and putting in performances, and the rest takes care of itself."
Farke was of a similar mind, saying: "The three points are massive for us. I'm really proud of my boys for delivering in a crunch time period.
"The job is not done yet. We will celebrate properly when it's mathematically done. But 43 points is good."
As for Burnley, its relegation to the EFL Championship had already been confirmed, but it has been a tumultuous week after the departure of Scott Parker as manager.
"We started very bad," Burnley centre back Maxime Esteve said. "And the same for the start of the second half, after we had some momentum.
"It was like the same against Nottingham Forest, when we concede some momentum, every team kills us, and we concede. And it's difficult to come back in the game.
"We have responsibility of everything. I have no problem with that. When you have 20 points, that's part of confidence.
"We have three games left. We try to give everything for us, to be proud of us. I know we're not proud of us because of the season, but we are also competitors."



































