Don Revie sometimes felt his Leeds team were cursed in their attempts to emulate Real Madrid, and this rainsoaked Madrid night of 2001 felt eerily familiar, of being a game beyond Leeds United's control.
Howard Wilkinson was never afraid that his way might be wrong — you could only do what you believed in and take your result. But if the result was that he was right, well, he absolutely loved that.
-ista | a specialist, enthusiast or advocate of a belief or principle
Suddenly, the Championship's dread grudges resume beating under the floorboards. Next season could bring Millwall, Middlesbrough and Frank Lampard's Coventry together with Sunderland, all specific, irrational problems for Leeds United. Eight games you can afford to miss, right there.
All the Leeds players looked to be having fun. The reward for their strict and superb defending was permission for free-swimming on turnovers, as if Leeds knew they weren't going to get much of the ball so were determined to enjoy it when they did.
The sense of Leeds United is that the club does know what it's doing, and it has been winning this game with itself from the start. Winning is easier when you're winning, and when draws are helping you win and defeats aren't hurting you, you're winning all the time.
Pugh slotted in for a season of post-relegation delirium when fans were trying to reassure each other that this could be a better, harder working team than in the erratic days of the Champions League.
One of the straight up delights of Anton Stach this season is that Leeds United have a technical and witty player who can and does fire free-kicks, without fuss, straight into the back of the net.
Leeds were taking on Europe's best and winning, but the wars of words were becoming different since Leeds kept coming out on top. David O'Leary, however, was still finding plenty to say.
The long story of Danny Mills at Leeds says more about the Peter Ridsdale era than any goldfish could.
Football is escapism, and a football game is played in one place between the referee's starting and ending whistles, and if everyone remembers that, we might get more games like this.
Rio Ferdinand just wanted to hear the Champions League anthem, and Leeds fans just wanted some flair to excite them. Then Ian Harte stepped up.