Smith sends Leeds home with a smile

13 April 2012

Leeds manager David O'Leary and his players have waited nine months to return from the Continent with a victory under their belts.

However, after five successive defeats on the away legs of European ties, goals from Ian Harte and Alan Smith plus a stunning performance from goalkeeper Nigel Martyn gave them the advantage in last night's first leg of their UEFA Cup thirdround tie.

It was a sweet victory for a team who lost their last three away games on the way to last season's Champions League semi-finals and had already been beaten by Maritimo in Portugal and Troyes in France in the current UEFA Cup campaign.

Last night looked destined to be away defeat No.6 as Leeds struggled to cope in rain-lashed Zurich. After falling behind to Swiss veteran Stephane Chapuisat's 17th-minute opener, it required three crucial interventions to earn the victory that puts O'Leary's men in a powerful position for the return leg in a fortnight.

The performance of Martyn is bound to have impressed the watching England coach Sven Goran Eriksson. In the first eight minutes of the second half Martyn made two crucial saves - but his most important contribution came in the 67th minute when Rio Ferdinand was harshly punished for a foul on Ricardo Nunez, which resulted in a penalty even though the offence appeared to have happened outside the box.

Nunez himself took the kick but his left-footed strike lacked the power to beat Martyn, who dived to his left and then produced two breathtaking stops to keep out a double rebound from Benjamin Mwarauwari.

Within seven minutes of Martyn's heroics, Republic of Ireland international Ian Harte equalised with a trademark left-foot free-kick. The left back's curling effort to beat Peter Jehle brought the Swiss champions to their knees.

But there was more to come from Leeds and Smith, another of the World Cup hopefuls hoping to catch Eriksson's eye, administered the killer blow. His finish from six yards was far from his finest but for a man who had not scored since the opening game of the season, and who has struggled with injury, it could hardly have been more important.

Smith and strike partner Robbie Keane toiled in Sunday's 2-0 defeat at Sunderland and last night they often struggled to make an impact against the Swiss.

Indeed, Smith's strike 10 minutes from time had a great deal of good fortune about it as the ball landed at his feet from a Keane miskick, and the finish itself was far from convincing.

Smith said: 'The conditions were dreadful and it was extremely cold. We have to be confident now after getting a result like this. We battled through difficult circumstances and we are very pleased.'

Australians Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka will be back from World Cup duty for the second leg but O'Leary will take nothing for granted as he prepares for Grasshopper's visit to Elland Road.

He said: 'We were very slack in the first half and could have been punished but we've given ourselves-a great chance to finish the job. You never take anything for granted but we have scored two vital away goals.

'We know what character we have and we showed fantastic spirit. But we did get out of jail because it could have been 2-0 if they had scored the penalty.

'When we get free kicks Ian is always likely to do that and Alan got the goal he deserved. It was a great victory on a very difficult pitch which got worse and under the circumstances they showed wonderful character.

'Rio couldn't believe the penalty decision but it was a good save by Nigel and I said it was about time he made one.'

Ferdinand said: 'The referee made some decisions that went against us tonight but we kept on going and got the result we felt we deserved.'

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Smith sends Leeds home with a smile

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