Here are the latest Leeds United headlines for Monday, June 19, 2023.
Southgate's Elland Road praise
Gareth Southgate is hoping England fans can replicate the atmosphere at Elland Road when his side take on North Macedonia at Old Trafford tonight. Southgate's men conclude their season with the fixture at Old Trafford, three days after beating Malta 4-0 away to make it three victories from three matches in Group C.
Tonight's match marks England's first game on home soil not to be staged at Wembley since they were thumped 4-0 by Hungary at Molineux a year ago, which prompted jeers from the crowd.
When asked about that, Southgate said: "It's for us always to bring the crowd with us. The onus is on us to give the crowd something to be excited about and to play well.
"It's a great crowd up here anyway. When we went to Leeds a few years ago that was an exceptional atmosphere, and I'm sure Manchester will be the same.
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"The fact it's a sell-out is exciting for us, it adds an edge to the game. But of course, also our opponent will be lifted by that. They will want to put on a good display. So we have to be ready for them. We want to play well, we want to entertain our supporters and we need to win."
Captain Cooper hailed
Leeds United skipper Liam Cooper's leadership skills have been hailed after he helped to inspire Scotland to a memorable UEFA 2024 qualifying campaign 2-1 comeback win against Norway in Oslo.
“Coops is a leader, he has been captain of Leeds for a long time now,” the Aston Villa skipper told PA. “He came on and he was screaming ‘just one chance, we only need one chance’. And that just filtered through.
“Don’t get me wrong, it was roasting, but the shade started coming in towards that end and I don’t know if it suited us but we got a wee bit of energy from somewhere.
“And a mistake at the back from them and Dykesy is alert and capitalised and from there the momentum is with us."