Leeds 0-2 Manchester United: Marcus Rashford and Alejandro Garnacho score

They had built a wall of sound on Elland Road and had barely turned the volume down. It was a game filled with fury and hate and visceral roars and jeers and whoops of approval as the tickets flew and jeering boos when a Manchester United player was injured. The sound was relentless. For Erik ten Hag and his team this was football as a test of character, a test for hostility.

But then, with ten minutes to go, the noise, the fury, and the hope suddenly ceased. The ball hung in the air from a Luke Shaw cross and the home fans saw Marcus Rashford go up unmarked eight yards and there was only silence. Rashford guided the ball with precision past Illan Meslier into the Leeds goal. Still, there was silence. All power was gone. All optimism was gone.

At the far corner of the pitch, Manchester United fans were bouncing and jumping for joy and Rashford ran up to them to celebrate. What a season he is having and this was one of the highlights of it, a goal that he said a lot about his strength and his ability. It must have felt like a release and a win for Rashford and his teammates after running the gauntlet for so long. A crowd of 36,919, most of them Leeds supporters, had tried to lead their team out of the relegation zone, but now they had to admit defeat.

Leeds probably deserved a point, but it was also hard to envy Ten Hag’s side winning. There aren’t many places like Elland Road in English football anymore. There aren’t many places like Elland Road in a Premier League that sometimes feels too clean, tidy and controlled. Elland Road is a retro environment and Manchester United showed they could handle it and thrive.

Their victory was garnished with a second goal, from substitute Alejandro Garnacho, and it was a fitting way for them to move past Manchester City, at least for a couple of hours, to second place in the Premier League. A few years ago, in a time before Ten Hag, United would have collapsed in the heat of this game. They would have wrinkled. They’re made of stronger stuff now.

The defeat sent Leeds into deeper trouble. They fired their manager, Jesse Marsch, last week and are still looking for a replacement. They will hope to make an announcement soon because they are on the brink of the relegation zone and their fans cannot help them much. They play Everton next week in what will be a critical matchup at the bottom of the table.

The atmosphere was unforgiving, intense, and magnificently hostile from the start. The visitors seized it and it was greeted with a thunderous roar of derision. Maguire’s first long forward pass was parried by a towering header from Robin Koch. That was greeted with a visceral roar of approval that seemed to come from deep within the stands.

Then Tyler Adams stopped Jadon Sancho, who was making his first start since October, in his tracks with a relentless but fair tackle. Sancho was catapulted into the air and another roar seemed to break the Yorkshire skies. When Weston McKennie launched a well-timed sliding tackle that sent Tyrell Malacia airborne, there was another roar, followed by jeering whoops as Malacia stayed on the ground. Adams and McKennie were superb in midfield. Marsch may be gone, but there’s still American steel in this club.

It was a throwback environment. It is usually when these two teams meet. It’s in the blood. “Get into them,” Leeds fans chanted. ‘Get into them, fuck them.’ The Leeds players did not let up for a second. They flew in every challenge. On the touchline, Ten Hag again seemed shaken by the fury that was being unleashed on his players. He complained long and hard to the fourth official. Cue more teasing, obviously.

The idea that any possibility could be derived from chaos was purely secondary. Leeds created the first chance when Wober hooked a ball from the goal line towards the near post. Patrick Bamford tried to help him but he couldn’t make contact. David de Gea cleared it halfway and Crysencio Summerville sidelined the loose ball just over the crossbar.

Soon, the reservations arrived. Firpo received a yellow card for another foul on Sancho, Fred was booked for a foul on Summerville, McKennie took his name for kicking Marcus Rashford out of the air. The crowd approved everything. The same chorus sounded. ‘Get into them, kill them,’ they roared again.

Bruno Fernandes wasted a rare opening by dragging his cross shot after Sancho had played it and at the other end, Harry Maguire lingered too long on the ball and was dispossessed by Jack Harrison. Harrison ran towards the goal, but Maguire had the intelligence to anticipate him by moving the ball back to his left foot so he could win the ball back.

De Gea made another mess by clearing a Summerville shot just before the break, but it was as the half approached added time that he produced his first shot on goal. It was a gift from Leeds. Wober tried to pass the ball from behind, but Fernandes blocked it and ran towards Ilhan Meslier. Fernandes steadied himself and tried to drill a low shot into the corner, but Meslier deflected it to safety with his right boot.

Luke Shaw took the resulting corner and flew through a group of players and hit Luke Ayling, who had endeared himself to the Leeds fans by very obviously eavesdropping on the touchline instructions that Ten Hag it was hitting Sancho, on the back of his thigh. Meslier was nailed on the point, but the ball rolled just outside his left post.

The pace did not drop after the break. De Gea made a good save from Summerville, Ayling’s shot was narrowly deflected by Shaw, Diogo Dalot slammed a piledriver into the face of the Leeds bar. The atmosphere had not calmed down either. When Fernandes went down after a struggle with Wober, Leeds fans jeered at him. ‘You’re just a soft, scummy son of a bitch,’ they chanted over and over again.

As the game progressed towards its closing stages, De Gea made a good save to deny Summerville again, but when the visitors went ahead ten minutes from time they finally broke the tie. The ball came to Shaw on the left and he sent a brilliant cross into the box. Rashford had found space between Firpo and Wober and rose to guide a precise header into the net. Meslier did not move.

Five minutes later United doubled their lead. Wout Weghorst, who had had a peripheral role, played understudy for Alejandro Garnacho. Garnacho prepared to throw his shot around Meslier but caught it by drilling it off the near post. Meslier gave it a hand but could only deflect it onto the wood and then watch it bounce over the line.