LEEDS, England (Reuters) -Leeds United bounced back from two goals down in the second half to edge Bournemouth 4-3 with another late goal from Crysencio Summerville in an exhilarating, end-to-end encounter at Elland Road in the Premier League on Saturday.
Despite finding themselves 3-1 down early in the second period, Jesse Marsch’s Leeds mounted an epic comeback with the vociferous home support behind them to take all three points and move up to 12th in the standings.
“It was the last home game (before the World Cup) and the crowd is like the 12th man,” said Summerville, who earned a first-half penalty and scored the fourth in the 84th minute, having snatched a last-gasp winner at Liverpool last weekend.
“Leeds United is incredible and the crowd give a lot. We have to keep building the momentum,” he added.
Leeds started the game on the attack and were awarded a penalty in the third minute when Summerville was fouled in the box. A composed Rodrigo stepped up to send goalkeeper Mark Travers the wrong way and open the scoring.
But even as Elland Road celebrated the early goal to create an intimidating atmosphere, Bournemouth were unperturbed and turned the volume down four minutes later when Marcus Tavernier, isolated at the far post, fired home from a cross.
The Leeds fans were silenced, albeit momentarily, when Tavernier picked up a long ball, had his shot saved and quickly recovered to set up Philip Billing who directed a first-time strike into the roof of the net in the 19th.
An upbeat Bournemouth then went 3-1 up two minutes into the second half when Tavernier turned provider again on a counter-attack that began from a Leeds corner and was finished in style by Dominic Solanke.
But Leeds refused to give in and struck twice in eight minutes to level the score, with 20-year-old Sam Greenwood first curling an effort past the keeper from outside the box before his delivery from a corner was headed home by Liam Cooper.
The comeback was complete when Leeds stormed forward on yet another counter-attack and Summerville burst into the box and latched onto a through ball from substitute Wilfried Gnonto to make it 4-3.
For Bournemouth, who dropped to 15th, it was a case of deja vu as they squandered a two-goal lead for a second consecutive match having lost 3-2 at home to Tottenham Hotspur last week.
“I am gutted. I think everyone in there feels it. It happened last week, it happened again this week,” Tavernier said.
“We have a two-goal cushion and have given a multiple amount of goals away. It is unacceptable, we can’t keep doing this as teams at this level will punish us.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Clare Fallon and Ken Ferris)
