8th March 2026. FA Cup 5th Round.
There isn’t much to say about that game, is there? I, for one, thought it would be a bit of a struggle, for all the usual Leeds United cup game reasons. We were sure to, and did, give most of our fringe players a run, players unused to playing a competitive game together and players who, by definition, we know do not have the innate quality of the regular starters.
Norwich City had been on a decent run lately, climbing the Championship table steadily after a dreadful start to the season. And, most of all, because the prize was an FA Cup quarter-final spot… and we haven’t had one of those for more than 20 years!
But, as it happens, this was a bit of a stroll, the Canaries offering little more than the lightest peck. I do struggle a tad, though, to know whether this was down to Leeds playing a great game or Norwich being poor; as with most things, I guess it was a bit of both. Norwich certainly offered very little, at least in the first half, or at least it seemed that way to me. The overall stats actually appeared to flatter them – 49 per cent possession, seven shots, and a couple of big chances, both in the second half, both missed. Leeds were generally efficient without looking like world-beaters, but there were a couple of moments of real quality.
The first came from Sean Longstaff for the opening goal after Gabby Gudmundsson stretched to sweep the ball back off the left byline. Longstaff took the ball on the full on his left foot, neatly lifting it before spinning full circle to volley it past Daniel Grimshaw in the Norwich goal with his right. It was a sublime piece of skill, a piece of quality, the likes of which he hasn’t often shown us this season.
The second quality moment came from Joel Piroe, a player who has had little opportunity to remind us what he’s capable of since his goals helped propel us to the summit of the Championship. He was unlucky a few minutes earlier when he hit a stunning long-range shot that was finger-tipped onto the crossbar, but then the way he finished off some great work by Lukas Nmecha in the 85th minute to score our third was just, well, it was just pure Piroe. As the ball was pushed across the area to him, he simply wrapped his left foot around it and curled it deliciously inside the far post. It was a reminder of something we all know he can do in his sleep.
In between those two moments, Gudmundsson got a just reward for his MOTM performance as he pounced to poke the ball home after a low Dan James cross ricocheted off a defender’s boot.
If I were to be ultra-critical, the two players we all hoped would get their seasons going today, James and Willy Gnonto, I thought didn’t have enough impact to suggest that we ought to start them both in a 4-4-2 formation any time soon.
Dan helped create the Gudmundsson goal and, before that, put across a similar low ball that Lukas Nmecha just failed to reach, but Dan was then withdrawn after 70 minutes, having registered very few other highlights in the game. Willy had an okay game, but again, against this level of opposition, surely, he ought to have shown more. In fact, the best ‘winger’ on the pitch was Gudmundsson!
Of the other ‘fringe’ players, Lucas Perri didn’t have much to do, but what he did was secure enough; Seb Bornauw did a decent job at right back while he was on the pitch; and Ao Tanaka was busy but sometimes loose with the ball.
End of the day, Daniel Farke has managed to get more minutes into more legs, and we may benefit from that in the more vital last nine league games if any of these players is called upon to play more than a bit part. More than that, though, we are into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, and we can at least have a little dream tonight that maybe, just maybe, we might have a trip to Wembley at least in a semi-final if Monday night’s draw is kind to us. I make it a 42% chance that we don’t draw any of the big four that are still left, and a home draw against Port Vale, Saints, or the winner of the West Ham v Brentford game at Elland Road would do nicely. Please 'Lady Luck'!
