Despite Leeds’ 3-0 drubbing of Deportivo La Coruna in last night’s Champions League quarter-final at Elland Road, David O’Leary remains cautious about their return match in 12 days time. The Leeds manager recognises the danger of becoming complacent about the La Liga champions, who are recognised as almost unbeatable in the Riazor Stadium after winning their last 24 league matches.
“I’m delighted,” said O’Leary. “The main thing was not to concede a goal and take whatever we got after that - so 3-0 is tremendous, but we've got to finish the job off. It's only half-time and I've seen these results turned round before. I've seen the tape of the Paris St Germain game when they were 3-0 up but were well turned over in the end. We know they are a team which can score goals, particularly at home.”
Deportivo came back from a three goal deficit to beat Paris St Germain 4-3 in their penultimate league game of the last group stage, a result which inspires hope in coach Javier Irureta. “It will be difficult to reach the semi-final, but once we get back to the Riazor Stadium there is always hope. We managed to pull back a three-goal deficit against Paris St Germain, so that is what we will have to hope for on this occasion,” he said.
“Miracles do exist in football - we've already seen it once this season with ourselves. But Leeds are a strong team, so we will have to produce even more effort than we did against Paris St Germain if we are to go through.”
What is certain is that last night’s result will have shocked the Deportivo side, whose midfielder Victor had previously labelled United as the weakest team in the quarter-final stage. David O’Leary’s side raced into the lead after the 26th minute, when Ian Harte's rocketed a free-kick past goalkeeper Francisco Molina. Alan Smith’s header in the 51st minute made it two, inspiring Lee Ferdinand to emerge from his four-year goal drought and put another past a beleaguered Molina.
O’Leary was delighted, but said that he expected Leeds to play well. “I'm not been surprised by the quality of our performances because we're not afraid of the big arena,” he stated. “We want to go out there and do our best. It's our first adventure in this great, great competition and I as a manager and them as players want to see how far we can go. I said to them `don't think we are making up the numbers in this last eight after the two groups you've come through'. So we're here on our own merits. I told them to go out and do their best and enjoy it because opportunities like this don't come around very often.”
“People think I'm talking it down but I honestly never thought we would get this far - and the rest of Europe didn't - but I just hope the adventure continues. I've been very lucky to come in after so many games which have been tremendous, and there have been so many great nights, but this has probably been the best in my time here.” (PA)
Filed by Shane Stokes
