Rodrigo has been praised for the ‘brilliant’ finish which gave Leeds United some hope in their hard-fought clash with Manchester City on Saturday.
Michael Brown told BBC Sport that it was a superb goal from the Spaniard as Sam Allardyce’s men did their best to set up a tense finish inside the Etihad Stadium.
Few would have anticipated that Leeds may be able to give the champions something to worry about. Manchester City went 2-0 up during the first-half. And fans would have feared that the floodgates would open.
Rodrigo praised in Leeds defeat at Manchester City
It would be too much to say that Leeds can be pleased with their performance from that moment. But it is definitely encouraging that the Whites managed to not concede again.
One moment they can certainly take heart from involved Erling Haaland and Phil Foden running the clock down in the corner. And the reason they did that was Leeds halved the deficit late on, thanks to Rodrigo.
The Spaniard came on during the second-half and managed to produce a smart finish from outside the box to hand Leeds a lifeline.
Rodrigo has not been in the best form in front of goal of late. But Michael Brown praised the goal which gave Leeds a glimmer of hope.
“Leeds United can always score a goal, they switched off for a second. Rodrigo with a brilliant left-footed finish just inside the penalty area,” he told BBC Sport.
“Now it makes the end of the game exciting.”
Obviously, expectations were incredibly low going into Saturday’s game. Manchester City are an unbelievable side this season. And they showed against West Ham in midweek that they have an amazing ability to go through the gears when they want to.
In fact, had Rodrigo scored sooner, Manchester City probably would have been able to turn up the pressure. But we have to take a lot of belief from the fact that Leeds were not disgraced.
If Leeds can give Manchester City something to worry about, then the fixtures against Newcastle, West Ham and Tottenham could go better than we would have previously feared.
It is still an uphill battle ahead for Leeds. But the fight showed on Saturday suggests that they have the hunger to get themselves out of trouble.