Sunderland beat Leeds United 1-0 at Elland Road on Tuesday night

Daniel Farke said he was left baffled after his Leeds United side were beaten 1-0 by Sunderland on Tuesday night.

Habib Diarra’s second-half penalty proved to be the difference between the two teams, with Sunderland producing a backs-to-the-wall display to overcome their lengthy injury list and get the win. Farke said he was pleased with large parts of his team’s performance but said that they fallen short in the final third, and felt they were unlucky not to be awarded a first-half penalty when Luke O’Nien grappled with Pascal Struijk at a corner.

Farke said: “Yeah, sometimes it's difficult and tough to take when you are... It's football sometimes. You're so, so dominant, you dominate each of your statistics, whatever, more than 70% possession. We knew we would face a very compact, very competitive side, that's how they've set up the whole season. They've won many, many points, they're difficult to open up. We had nearly 20 shots, so many set-pieces, corner kicks, free kicks. We didn't give one chance away, but somehow we lost this game 1-0.

“I think to start with something self-critical, I think we were lacking a little bit of clarity today in the final third because we were so dominant, but the last focus, the last concentration to play the final pass precise, to bring the cross precise in, also to anticipate,” he added.

“Sometimes you win so many first touches after corner kicks, but to anticipate when the ball comes down, to be in the end of such a corner and put the ball over the line was a little bit missing, of course. Also somehow crazy decisions in terms of penalty. Pascal Struijk, for example, normally weshould have been rewarded with a penalty in the first half. It's for me difficult to judge why this situation was not given. Then in the second half we are dominant we score the first goal, the whole stadium is exploding anyhow, so Joe Rodon with a great header. It's three inches offside and one minute later on the other side, sometimes it's written in the stars, so my most important player, they don't even have a chance, but he has somehow an instinctive, intuitive movement with his arm and gives the penalty away in a situation where it's not even a chance for them. Then it's also somehow difficult to explain how this penalty went in. Sometimes it's really difficult to explain. Yes, being self-critical. We have to say we have to be more brutal in front of the goals.

“I can't really question the workload again, also the performance, the mentality. We are very happy with many, many topics. Yes, we didn't show the quality today to bring the ball into the net, and this is in football a very, very important topic and this is the reason why we lost. Of course, today it's really frustrating and annoying to accept this result, yes.”

Farke said Ampadu’s error in handling the ball was the crucial moment.

Yes, he was of course disappointed today because he knew that this situation was crucial,” Farke said.

“Probably if we don't concede, if it's no longer 0-0, I would have been convinced that we would have won the game. But because they scored the goal, they could dig in even more, they could use more of the situations. Smart game management, if you want to label it like this. I think with 9-0 it wouldn't have looked like this. It was of course a crucial situation and for him also hard to explain because he knew there was not even a chance for him, there was no reason to move his arm. I think it was just an intuitive, instinctive reaction. Of course he was disappointed because he wanted to win this game so much and wanted to have at least a clean sheet.”

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Daniel Farke responds to Sunderland ‘gamesmanship’ question

Farke was asked in his post-match press conference about Sunderland’s ‘gamesmanship’, after Melker Ellborg received treatment in the first half in which tactical information was passed to the rest of the team.

The Leeds United boss has previously criticised such moves from other teams but said he did not want to be seen to be making excuses for the loss.

Farke said: “Yes, I've made my point several weeks ago, I've spoken about this, I don't want to do this today after a loss. After a win I would speak about this topic, but after a loss I'm not tempted to speak about it because it would sound like searching for excuses. I'd like to concentrate on what we have not done perfectly and where we have to be a bit self-critical, that clarity in the final third and being clinical in the finish was missing.I don't want to comment too much on this topic today, but you know my attitude.”

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