Portsmouth played out a thriller with Leeds United at Elland Road
Portsmouth played out a thriller with Leeds United at Elland Road
Match

View: Portsmouth show fearlessness that not many predicted in first half v Leeds United

Dan Godfrey
Dan Godfrey

Dan is a sports writer and broadcaster, who wrote for Breaking Media Limited's club sites including Pompey News between May 2024 and May 2025. Graduating from the University of Huddersfield in 2018 with First Class Honours in Sports Journalism, Dan has worked with several EFL clubs, as well as with BBC Radio, talkSPORT and TNT Sports. He previously resided in Sydney, Australia, where he continued his career as a freelancer in various sports. Dan was born and raised in Portsmouth, comes from a Pompey-supporting family, and was in attendance at both of the club's FA Cup finals in 2008 and 2010.

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Portsmouth lead Leeds United at Elland Road at half-time.

One thing is for sure, absolutely no-one saw this coming after a quarter of an hour, by which point Leeds led through Pascal Struijk's penalty and had astonishingly hit the woodwork three times.

But an opportunity to regroup was swiftly taken and Pompey grew in comfort, equalising through debutant Elias Sorensen before Callum Lang hit a howitzer past Illan Meslier to give the visitors a shock lead.

Having stunned West Yorkshire, John Mousinho's men did predictably have their backs to the wall, but the fearlessness shown on the road in League One has reared itself again in the Championship and could give the Blues a real shout here.

Portsmouth take their chances in first half

The travelling Portsmouth fans at Elland Road in this early afternoon clash - some of whom had missed a portion of the first half due to public transport cancellations - viewed this opening fixture as something of a free hit.

The game is one of the first seven which have been identified as a baptism of fire back in the second tier - Andy Moon of BBC Radio Solent described the opening schedule as "brutal" [1 July] - and the general consensus is that around 10 points from the seven would be satisfactory.

But if there was one way to gauge Portsmouth's confidence, it's that they lead against the run of play at half-time through a stunning Lang hit, that doesn't get so much as attempted if there is no belief running through the team.

Mousinho has got everyone singing from the same hymn sheet and although Leeds were always going to dominate proceedings, Will Norris and the defence have been alert to most of the danger and have contributed just as equally to Pompey's lead at the interval.

We wait to see what develops in the second half, but that 100 per cent graft will remain and that is a certainty.

In other Portsmouth news, a loan spell for one of the club's youngsters.

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