Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a penalty and Gabriel Gudmundsson was sent off in a chaotic five-minute spell before half-time as Leeds and Crystal Palace played out a goalless draw at Selhurst Park.
As the half-time interval beckoned, a lifeless 45 minutes suddenly burst into life as Will Hughes' curious use of his hand to defend a corner was punished with a penalty awarded to Leeds. Calvert-Lewin, who returned to the side after missing Leeds' FA Cup win against Norwich, fired well wide of the mark.
A frantic spell quickly followed, with two decisions involving Ismaila Sarr, heaping pressure on referee Tom Bramall. The first saw the official decide against giving Jaka Bijol a second yellow for bringing down Sarr. An irate Selhurst Park raised the volume to let their opinions be known.
However, just moments later, Gudmundsson, who had already been booked for an earlier challenge on Brennan Johnson, mistimed a challenge on Sarr.
After some confusion and seemingly having to be reminded that Gudmundsson was walking a tight rope, Bramall brandished a second yellow card - a decision Jaydee Canvot celebrated wildly as Gudmundsson made his way back into the dressing room.
Speaking after the game, Farke, who also received his first-ever yellow card in charge of a Premier League club, said that the challenge wasn't "even close" to meriting a second yellow.
Before the dramatic spell at the end of the first half, the only moment of entertainment came from Walter Benitez's goalkeeping. The keeper, making his Premier League debut coming in for an ill Dean Henderson, just about kept out a Calvert-Lewin header.
Leeds remained resolute despite being a man shy, limiting a toothless Palace to just one shot on target. Jefferson Lerma thought he had netted the winner from a well-worked Palace set-piece routine but the goal was chalked off with Johnson offside in the build-up.
And while Leeds earned a valuable point in their bid for Premier League survival, Palace recorded back-to-back home goalless draws.
Crystal Palace boss Oliver Glasner has hit back at criticism of his side after a toothless display in front of goal.
"You know better [than me] how often Crystal Palace has been among the top ten.
"We are close by, we are playing European football. Yes, we know we have some topics to improve, but I don't like it if everybody is so critical.
"For me, it seems like Crystal Palace was always playing for the Premier League title and always playing such great football, and now they are not doing it anymore, and I think that's completely unfair, especially for the players.
"I always respect the opinion of the fans, like everybody's opinion on the other side and I just can repeat it, you should know it much better than me, that this is still one of the best seasons in Crystal Palace history.
"I don't know if Crystal Palace always played so entertainingly, scoring three, four, five goals a game. I don't know.
"Since I've been watching Palace, this has never happened. It happened in a very short period when Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise played in the front.
"But I can't remember; we haven't seen it before, since I started watching Palace.
"Our foundation was always the defence, everything we achieved here. Having the two best years in Crystal Palace history is related; the foundation is the great defence and conceding very few goals."
Leeds boss Daniel Farke expressed pride in his side's performance after the game:
"It was another day that has proved why I would trust my boys, even with my life, because I can always count on them.
"We are perhaps not perfect and flawless, otherwise it would have been a neat half-time.
"But how we adapted to the strange circumstances also in the second half, that we had to play the whole second half under load and had to accept some strange decisions today, to show such a mentality and such a unity... [we] didn't give any chances away.
"I think it was one of the rare games where the team that had to play for such a long period under load even had more expected goals than the home team, who was more or less chasing the game.
"We didn't give clear-cut chances away here and there, perhaps sometimes a shot or a set-piece, but not really chances. It was the other way round, I got the feeling.
"So even in the second half, we were sometimes close, also perhaps to score the winning goal. I'm just proud of this performance and how united we were today again.
"The spirit that we showed, also the quality, the structure in the defending. Before the game, I told the lads we had travelled here in order to win this game of football because I was full of confidence and belief in my players."
