Leeds United - on this day: Marcelo Bielsa denies nerves as Kalvin Phillips sees red in controversial QPR defeat

The date...

January 18, 2020

The event

Leeds United lost to Queens Park Rangers 1-0 in the Championship in controversial circumstances

What happened?

Leeds United's push for promotion to the Premier League was stuttering ahead of a difficult trip to Loftus Road.

The Whites had seen a healthy gap over the play-off spots slip and defeat in the capital only aided the new year worries.

United took on Mark Warburton's QPR side looking to reassert themselves in the top two but were beaten in controversial circumstances on an afternoon to forget.

Nahki Wells put the hosts ahead - with the striker using an arm in the build up to the goal - before Patrick Bamford saw a second half penalty saved by goalkeeper Liam Kelly.

Matters were made worse two minutes from time as Kalvin Phillips lunged in on Geoff Cameron to see a straight red card which would rule him out for the following three games.

The defeat saw Leeds remain a point behind league leaders West Brom but only four ahead of third place - a gap which had been 10 points just a few weeks earlier.

Perhaps more worryingly, though, Bielsa's side had won just one win in their last seven games with form dropping at an alarming rate.

The United boss was quizzed over his side's woes in the aftermath, where he defending his players despite the decline in results.

"I don't think there's a lack of confidence or that it's about nerves," Bielsa said post-match.

"There were moments where we lacked efficiency but I don't think this happened because of a lack of confidence.

"In football you have lots of situations you can manage and some you can't manage.

"Sometimes the ones you can't manage damage one team or are in favour of one team. Today, everything that we couldn't manage in the game was against us."