(Football news) Leeds United went five points clear of the relegation zone after a 0-0 draw against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. In team news, Kalvin Phillips made his first start for Leeds since December while Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell was unavailable due to injury. Despite chances few and far between for both the teams, Crystal Palace will be disappointed to not secure the win which would have taken them to 40 points and eliminated chances of relegation. 

As for Leeds, Jesse Marsch’s team will be satisfied with the point but face a tough fixture list with Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal on the horizon. As of now, Everton, who are currently 18th have a game in hand on Leeds and Burnley and could reduce the points gap to just two with a win. Leeds started the match slowly with Crystal Palace coming close to opening the scoring twice inside 20 minutes. In the first chance, Jean-Philippe Mateta was not clinical enough to convert the opportunity while Leeds defender Diego Llorente made a vital interception to prevent a goal scoring opportunity from Jordan Ayew’s cross.

For Leeds, only Liam Cooper registered a shot on target with a header that was easily saved by Vicente Guaita. Marsch made some changes at half-time by bringing on Robin Koch for Mateusz Klich while Crystal Palace’s Michael Olise combined well with Wilfred Zaha to threaten their opponents on the wing. Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier made a brilliant double save to deny Zaha with 10 minutes to go and their defensive solidity may be key to their survival in the Premier League, having already conceded 68 goals so far, with only Norwich City have a worse record.

Speaking after the match, Jesse Marsch said “We, as a group, were a little bit disappointed overall with the performance but we have to look at this as a positive. Two clean sheets in a row, it's a big point that gets us closer to the ultimate goal. It was a night where we bend but don't break. The guys are disappointed but the point was valuable. Some of the things in possession that we wanted to try to make little connections, we weren't able to establish enough to do that. After 16 days, it was not easy to get game sharpness. But the mentality to fight for everything was there. 

“There's still moments when they get caught in the man marking, or the other players feel like they have to cover behind them. Some of the positioning in the build-up phases in the last third, we need to be better in the connection and timings of plays. These games are incredible. They're tight, every second and every moment can help them in both directions. Being physical and defending in real ways and winning duels is going to be important for how I want us to play. Containing to find ways with the ball to manipulate and unbalance opponents and move and connect in a way that can be a bit more dangerous. We'll keep working."

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