Leeds skipper Cooper slammed by pundit for ‘leg-breaking’ tackle
Liam Cooper has been slammed by pundit Paul Dickov for his ‘crazy’ challenge on Man City forward Gabriel Jesus.
The Leeds United captain was initially given a yellow card for his high tackle in the first half.
That was later upgraded to a red once referee Andre Marriner had checked the VAR screen.
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Cooper won the ball with his challenge but left the ground and caught Jesus in the process.
Reacting to the tackle, former City striker Dickov said: “It’s such a stupid challenge from the captain. Cooper is an experienced international, an experienced captain for Leeds, you are 1-0 up and in control of the game and then you have gone and done that.
“That is naughty. It is a leg-breaking tackle. And Gabriel Jesus is lucky he is back on his feet. What was Cooper thinking?
“The tackle was crazy because he was having a good game – it wasn’t like he was getting run ragged and he was having a poor game.
“He’s won everything that has come into the box and blocked a couple of shots, so from that point of view, it must have been a mad rush of blood to the head to do it.”
Leeds had taken the lead just minutes earlier through Stuart Dallas.
A nice move down the left saw Tyler Roberts play in Patrick Bamford. The English striker set up Dallas who fired a strike onto the post and into the net for his sixth goal of the season.
Cooper’s red card meant Bamford had to be sacrificed just before half time, with defender Pascal Struijk replacing him.
The Whites held on against the league leaders until the 76th minute, when Ferran Torres equalised to end his goalscoring drought.
They secured a surprise victory in injury-time as Dallas raced through and sent his shot underneath Ederson to make it 2-1.