Leeds boss Daniel Farke was delighted with his side’s maturity following a 2-0 Championship win at Plymouth.
Georginio Rutter set up Wilfried Gnonto’s 10th minute opener and then capped a comfortable away win with a thumping 72nd minute strike to secure three points and help United move to second on the back of an eight-match winning streak in the league.
Farke said: “I am a happy man first of all because no other side since October has managed to come away from here with three points.”
“We got a really good start with the goal early on because Plymouth are a good side and hard to beat, especially in home games, so it was a very good opening 10 to 15 minutes for us.
“We stayed focused throughout and scored a really good second goal and I think in the last minute it should have been a penalty and not a free kick so it could have been three.
“So overall I am really pleased with the maturity we showed to win this game.”
Farke singled out goalkeeper Illan Meslier for particular praise.
He said: “Melier was outstanding today. That’s one of his best performances this season. The last free kick from Whittaker for example, he put out. Today he did everything right.
“The Championship is relentless. It’s all about consistency, which is what we are showing.
“We must not forget we have one of the youngest sides in the Championship, especially near the top of division so they have shown a lot of maturity.
“After two fine away wins we need to rest and be ready and have energy for the game coming up at home to Leicester next Friday.”
Argyle head coach Ian Foster said: “I am proud of the players and the way they stuck to the game plan.
“Overall, performance-wise I am pleased. We have limited an unbelievable team in this division to two shots on target.
“I thought we were too passive in the first 20 minutes, which is not like us.
“It perhaps took their goal to settle us down.
“We were disappointed with the first goal and could have done better with the second but overall, like I said, we were pleased because Leeds are such an unbelievably good side.
“I thought we were dominant possession-wise in the second half but we needed to do more with the ball.
“Leeds are devastating in attack and ruthless with their finishing and they showed that today.
“I thought overall in the second half we did well but could not find a way to get the ball in the box.
“Leeds and us have got two different objectives this season.
“There were a lot of positives to take from the game but obviously we are disappointed to lose.
“We dust ourselves and get ready for Tuesday at home to West Brom now.”
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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