Aston Villa defeat Leeds United 1-0 in the pre-season friendly thanks to Danny Ings’ goal
Aston Villa and Leeds United met in Brisbane, Australia this Sunday in the Queensland Champions Cup. Villa defeated Leeds United 1-0 due to a Danny Ings penalty. The game was a fiery affair with tough tackles and skirmishes. One skirmish boiled over when John McGinn roughly tackled Andy Gray. Gray left the field with an ankle brace before being carried away on a stretcher.
Jesse Marsch and Leeds United are now fine-tuning their squad without two major payers. Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips left for Barcelona and Manchester City respectively this season. They were instrumental in Leeds avoiding relegation last season. Aston Villa were also in fine-tuning mode despite starting a strong starting eleven. New signing Diego Carlos came on as a substitute in the second half and his impact was tremendous in the match
New signing Diego Carlos impressed the most
Diego Carlos wasted no time in proving his mettle as a defender for Aston Villa. His first aerial battle against Patrick Bamford ended with Bamford floundering on the ground. However, Bamford quickly retaliated with a late challenge. Tempers were beginning to flare when Carlos stepped in to address the situation calmly and confidently. Villa manager Steven Gerrard was all praises for the defender. He highlighted that Diego Carlos was a no-nonsense player. Gerrard said:
“You see what Diego’s about. He’s no-nonsense. He wants to defend his goal. He’s all-in. Again, he’s built on his first performance and he’s got two 45 minutes in the tank now”.
Danny Ings also played only in the second half of the match for Villa. However, he seemed like a player who had something to prove. He knows that he needs to put out consistent performances to play regularly this season. If Ings can perform at the level he was performing for Southampton, then Aston Villa could cause a lot of trouble for the other teams.
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