- Leeds to win and Summerville to score - 12/5 with BetVictor
- Leeds to score a penalty - 7/2 with bet365
The Championship play-off semi-finals kicked off on Sunday in predictably nervy fashion, with Norwich and Leeds sharing a goalless draw at Carrow Road to set it all up for a winner-takes-it-all clash on Thursday.
Leeds will be the happier of the two sides heading back to Elland Road with home advantage expected to play a big part in deciding the winner of the tie, but David Wagner has been there and done it before with Huddersfield and won’t shy away from spoiling the party in Leeds.
We’ve taken a closer look at the game and picked out a few tips and predictions.
Leeds vs Norwich Match Preview
Not much really happened in the first leg, with Leeds weathering an early storm from the home side before settling into a relatively settled pattern of containing, with Daniel Farke happy to take a clean sheet back to West Yorkshire.
It was a welcome return to defensive solidity for the Peacocks having conceded nine goals in their previous three matches, and the decision to pack the midfield in an attempt to make the side more defensively-minded paid off.
However he will want to see more attacking ambition at Elland Road on Thursday and it will be interesting to see whether he persists with Georginio Rutter up front in the absence of Pat Bamford, or reverts the Frenchman to his regular number 10 role and entrusts Joel Piroe or Matteo Joseph to lead the line.
Norwich shouldn’t be discouraged however, given Leeds’ recent loss of form towards the end of the season and the two successive home defeats.
If they can frustrate the home side and the home crowd in the first half, there will undoubtedly be tension in the crowd and that would seem to be their best chance of coming away with a date at Wembley in their diaries.
Norwich vs Leeds Tips
Like the first leg, this could again be a cagey affair with Norwich likely to try and disrupt the Leeds attack and take the tie deep into the second half and beyond.
Given Bamford’s absence and Farke’s struggles to replace the work done by the number nine, if he again lines up with Rutter up front then the goalscoring burden will fall on Crysencio Summerville to finish off his brilliant season.
Leeds should still fancy themselves to have enough to get past Norwich, but don’t expect it to be a walkover like it could have been earlier in the season.
Farke mentioned in his press conference before the first leg that he had received a lot of apology letters from the match officials this season, having been adjudged to have missed out on a lot of penalties over the course of the season.
With the likes of Wilfried Gnonto, Summerville and Rutter keeping the ball at very close quarters and with a lot of interchanging around the box, it is no surprise that they draw a lot of fouls - even if sometimes the attackers do go down a bit easily.
We think that might be the difference on Thursday. Summerville has an excellent record from the spot so far this season and will be Leeds’ first choice taker - though Piroe did try to take the ball off him earlier in the season - and will have a lot of confidence if he steps up.
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