Leeds United - on this day: Marcelo Bielsa makes stunning Elland Road bow against Stoke City

The day...

August 5, 2018

The event...

Marcelo Bielsa takes charge of his first competitive Leeds United match - defeating Stoke City 3-1 at Elland Road.

What happened?

Leeds United entered the 2018-19 campaign heading a little into the unknown.

It had been a summer of change at Elland Road as Marcelo Bielsa took over from outgoing head coach Paul Heckingbottom.

United had disappointed the season before, finishing mid-table in the Championship, and started the season with a new boss for the eight successive year.

Bielsa, though, offered renewed hope in West Yorkshire that he was the man to help guide the club back to the Premier League.

The Argentine had arrived for the start of pre-season and quickly made decisions over his squad - opting to keep the bulk with few additions.

Leeds welcomed freshly relegated Stoke City to LS11 on the opening day of the new Championship season with no-one really knowing what to expect from the Whites.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Bielsa's stint in LS11 started with a bang as United announced their promotion intentions immediately against the Potters.

Mateusz Klich pounced onto a through ball from playmaker Samuel Saiz to open the scoring after just 15 minutes.

Pablo Hernandez then added a second to the scoreline in first half injury-time before Benik Afobe gave the visitors hope from the penalty spot seven minutes after the break.

Leeds, though, restored their two-goal cushion as club captain Liam Cooper powered a header past the helpless Jack Butland five minutes later to give the hosts a resounding 3-1 victory.

"It's too soon to make any analysis either positive or negative [on whether Leeds can challenge this season]," Bielsa said post-match.

"It was a game with high intensity, our players were very ambitious and they put in a great physical effort. The physical effort pleased me, the productivity was very high.

"We had the hope and the ambition to win. We have a dynamic team, an offensive team. We took risks when we were moving the ball."