After Southampton and Port Vale caused shocks, could Philippe Clement mastermind a third of the day for Norwich City? The answer was a resounding no, as Leeds United cuffed their guests aside, and progressed to a first quarter-final in 23 years.
Leeds have not contested a semi-final since 1987 when losing 3-2 against Coventry (after extra time) but are only 90 minutes away from breaching a 53-year gap to when the club last featured at Wembley in the competition: the 1973 showpiece, which Sunderland won 1-0.
United are in the hat after opening-half strikes from Sean Longstaff and Gabriel Gudmundsson and Joël Piroe’s clincher as the end neared – the last goal illustrative of how Daniel Farke’s team were supremely professional – even when Norwich burst into life for a passage after the break.
Their chances will be fancied against whoever they are drawn with before the final fifth-round tie on Monday that pits West Ham against Brentford as Cup glory can now be sniffed.
Following a rousing pre-tie medley of tunes headed by Fanfare for the Common Man, Leeds engineered a flurry of goalmouth action that culminated in the opener.
Lukas Nmecha, in for Dominic Calvert-Lewin at No 9, was heavily involved in all. His first act was to scoop home after a defensive mix-up featuring Daniel Grimshaw and Ruairi McConville. As each failed to deal with Jaka Bijol’s flighted delivery, Wilfried Gnonto nipped in and the ball went to Nmecha who scored.
Except, the video assistant referee intervened and Gnonto was adjudged – correctly – to have handballed and it was chalked off. This was greeted with pithy renditions of “Fuck VAR”, and the congregation’s ire depeened when Nmecha was denied a penalty for the claim of a shove by McConville.
But, now, came Longstaff’s fine finish. Gnonto passed to an overlapping Gudmundsson whose chip from the left was taken, on the full, by the No 8’s left foot before, as balletic, he pirouetted and volleyed beyond Grimshaw with his right.
Leeds continued to be a swarm in white. A Dan James cross-shot was turned in by Gnonto but he was offside and Norwich, a defensive horror-show, allowed Bijol, raiding from defensive berth, to run free into their area: if Nmecha’s radar had not been awry the centre-back would have been in.
Leeds’s second was slick but owed to this disorganisation. Ao Tanaka, drafted in by Farke to pull the strings, did so: a slide-rule ball into Nmecha’s feet in front of Norwich’s D was turned back to Longstaff who instantly pinged possession right to James. The winger’s cross was not cleared by those in yellow, and Gudmundsson did the rest.
As Leeds are three points above the drop zone, Farke had retained only Gudmundsson and Ethan Ampudu from the midweek defeat at Sunderland.
Clement’s call was the opposite, as only Vladan Kovacevic – for Grimshaw – dropped out from the win at Leicester last weekend.
“Big Phil”, as Canaries devotees call him, has won their hearts for guiding them to 10 points above the drop zone with 10 games left after he took them over in November when second-bottom of the Championship with nine points after 15 games. Yet at the interval the Frenchman needed stern words to wake his unit up or a rout was on the cards.
For the second half he replaced Grimshaw with Kovacevic – due to injury, perhaps? – and Farke took off his right-back, Sebastian Bornauw, for James Justin.
The same Leeds dominance ensued as James twice threatened Norwich’s danger zone. Clement, robed in grey jacket and dark trousers, was impotence personified on the touchline.
Yet brighter was a Paris Maghoma burst that drew a free-kick on the left for the Frenchman’s side. The same player drove this in and José Córdoba’s header flew over.
At 5.59pm – sunset – Piroe took an energy gel as he, observing Ramadan, broke his fast.
This came as Clement made a triple substitution – Ben Slimane, one of the three also took a gel before entering – and unlike last week’s boos that greeted the same occurrence during Leeds’s defeat against Manchester City there were none – those jeers may, though, have been due to there being not enough communication regarding what the break was for, the club stated.
Norwich certainly brightened. Jack Stacey, the third of Clement’s mid-period replacements, ran in but went down and the move fizzled out. But, then, the death knell for Norwich’s hopes. The excellent Nmecha powered inside from the left and stroked to Piroe who, calmly, swept past Kovacevic, the No 10 pointing to the heavens in celebration.
