Although David O'Leary denied that this victory opened the door to the Premiership's third Champions' League position, his side has judged their run to perfection. Yesterday represented their fifth win in six matches and was by a distance the most significant Football, like comedy, is all about timing. Although David O'Leary denied that this victory opened the door to the Premiership's third Champions' League position, his side has judged their run to perfection. Yesterday represented their fifth win in six matches and was by a distance the most significant. Since being knocked out of the FA Cup by Liverpool on 27 January, Leeds have not lost domestically, and although G?rd Houllier pointed to his side's two games in hand and argued it was inconceivable they could perform this poorly again, Anfield's Champions' League ambitions may have been dealt a mortal blow.The reasons behind Leeds' resurgence are not hard to fathom, although some might think it is no coincidence they have played with such panache since Brian Kidd started coaching the first team."It is all about having players back from injury," said O'Leary. "You can be the greatest manager off the pitch but if you have nobody to put out on to the field you can do nothing. But although Brian's been a great addition to the club, we began our roll a couple of months before he took charge."Nevertheless, Leeds are still dangerously fragile in some positions, not least at centre-half. Lucas Radebe is injured, Jonathan Woodgate has been unable to focus on football because of his trial while Michael Duberry has suffered from both conditions.Under the circumstances, Rio Ferdinand and Dominic Matteo have risen to the challenge manfully.

Houllier had to sell the latter to fund the transfer of Christian Ziege, and those who were at Anfield on Good Friday might wonder who had the better of the deal.Ferdinand began the match by winning Merseyside hearts as he placed a wreath in the goalmouth beneath the Kop to mark the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster, which was made more poignant by the deaths at Ellis Park. Barely three minutes after kick-off he broke them by heading in Ian Harte's corner and throughout he was icily composed dealing with the England trio of Fowler, Owen and Heskey.His goal provided the first evidence that Liverpool were seriously off-colour. Ferdinand should have been picked up by Steven Gerrard but the midfielder, who was to be harshly dismissed for two bookable offences, wandered towards Matteo, allowing the other centre-back to pounce by the far post.For the rest of the half, Liverpool never seemed to recover their balance. Their passing was hopelessly astray and eventually proved fatal as Gerrard slipped the ball straight to Olivier Dacourt in the 32nd minute. The Frenchman fed Harry Kewell, whose through-ball was met by Lee Bowyer thundering in from midfield. Sander Westerveld blocked his first shot but Bowyer merely walked the rebound in.In November, Leeds had been two down to Liverpool at Elland Road after being similarly outplayed and recovered to win 4-3. Liverpool could not match that but it is a testament to how poorly they began that they looked more of a threat when reduced to 10 men.After the interval, Houllier brought on Vladimir Smicer and Gary McAllister for Patrik Berger and Danny Murphy, whose free-kick superbly turned away by Nigel Martyn had been their one clear chance.

None of the Liverpool midfielders who began the match finished it. "I could have changed the entire team," said the Liverpool manager "I did not feel that anyone played well in the first half. If we play like that against Barcelona, we will be in trouble. In the first half Leeds looked stronger and more solid that we did."McAllister, certainly, brought more fizz to proceedings and 10 minutes after the restart Michael Owen, cutting in from the left, squared for Gerrard to drive home, although Liverpool's respite and the midfielder's celebrations were to be short-lived. He had already been booked for a robust challenge on Alan Smith but his tackle on David Batty that earned the second yellow card was innocuous, especially to someone as battle-hardened as the Yorkshireman."I thought the sending-off was harsh," Batty commented.