Keane's rescue act saves Leeds

Although there were five goals as well as the customary thrills and spills when Leeds step out in Europe, it was not the goals themselves that provided the pivotal moments of a tie that was so close to squirming out of their grasp.

Ironically for Troyes, whose hero at Elland Road was Patrice Loko, the former France striker had to hold his head in his hands after he wasted the chance of the match by blasting his shot high over Nigel Martyn's bar when he had been presented with a golden opportunity after 63 minutes.

A cool head, a calm aim and a fourth goal then would surely have put the tie beyond Leeds as Troyes went through a brief but compelling spell that seemed to signal the end for O'Leary's hopes.

The second moment of destiny came in injury time when Troyes, now desperate to inflict the aggregate defeat they had thought was theirs for the taking, broke through once more only for Martyn to pull off a save at the feet of substitute Nicolas Gousse that was as important as it was brave.

Although he has built an Elland Road career out of such actions, Martyn's dive and save prevented Troyes from pulling off the achievement that their coach Alain Perrin had insisted would be akin to conquering Everest.

Troyes reached first base so quickly that the climb began to look manageable well before half time. Gharib Amzine set the tone for Troyes' shoot-on-sight policy with the marvellous strike from Loko's precisely aimed corner and Martyn was beaten all ends up.

It did not help Leeds' cause that Michael Duberry, playing his first senior match since rupturing an achilles tendon 13 months ago, should be at the heart of the incident that led to them conceding the eighth-minute corner that confounded so quickly their bid for a clean sheet.

Leeds were level within six minutes when Mark Viduka rose to head Ian Harte's corner into the net but David Hamed restored Troyes' lead in the 37th minute with a free kick that took an almighty deflection off Dominic Matteo.

Troyes were suddenly heading for a famous victory in the 58th minute when Jerome Rothen fired a third goal after a pull-back by Amzine - but, in the end, Keane made sure that it was not quite enough.