LOUM Tchaouna struck his first goal for the Clarets – just when his boyhood pal looked set to steal the show.
Tchaouna, a £13million summer buy from Lazio, sent a jaw-dropping 30-yarder spiralling over keeper Karl Darlow, just ten minutes after stepping from the bench.
That came as Burnley clung to a first half lead given to them by his fellow Frenchman Lesley Ugochukwu, left in acres of space to flick in an unmarked header.
And it completed a remarkable made-in-Rennes double for a duo who came through as kids at the Ligue 1 club, before going their separate ways.
In Ugochukwu’s case that was two years at Chelsea and a season on loan at Southampton before his August switch to Turf Moor.
Tchaouna went from Rennes to Salernitana and Lazio, and he moved to East Lancashire a month before his old mucker.
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And yesterday the pie-and-a-pint celebrations came with a definite Gallic twist, as the two marked their reunion as the goalscoring heroes of a remarkable game.
Not so much because of the end-to-end excitement, mind…more as to how Burnley came to not only win it, but with room to spare.
Leeds had the lion’s share of possession – virtually all of it in the second half in fact – but still barely caused Martin Dubravka a moment’s concern.
Admittedly the Clarets keeper had to be alert with his one serious stop to deny Brenden Aaronson just before the break.
Aaronson struck his chance crisply enough, but Dubravka got enough on it to send it spinning against the post and safety. A good save, but a bad miss.
Then the Slovak stopper pushed away Anton Stach’s piledriving free kick, although the Leeds midfielder whipped his effort too close to Dubravka in any case.
Ugochukwu certainly didn’t when he rose to meet Kyle Walker’s dead-eye delivery midway through the first half.
And Tchaouna gave the keeper similarly without a hope as Walker’s electric burst down the right ended with the midfielder taking a touch to steady himself before releasing his rocket.
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