Leeds United produced a near perfect performance to overcome Norwich City in the Championship play-off semi-finals last night.
Following a 0-0 draw in the first leg at Carrow Road on Sunday, Leeds used playing at home in the return fixture to their advantage as they demolished Daniel Farke‘s former side 4-0.
David Wagner – who has since been sacked by Norwich after the defeat – admitted his team simply couldn’t handle the occasion in front of an incredible Elland Road crowd.
Ilia Gruev got the scoring underway early on with a brilliant free-kick, with Joel Piroe and Georginio Rutter both adding to that early lead before the break to effectively put the tie to bed.
Crysencio Summerville put the icing on the cake in the second half to cap a memorable evening under the lights in LS11, and send Leeds through to the final at Wembley.
What Gray did that drew big applause from Farke in first-half
Farke made just one change to his starting XI from the first leg, though that did prompt a pretty major reshuffle in terms of who played where.
Amid Sam Byram’s late injury issue, Piroe came in up front with Rutter dropping into the number 10 role. That also meant Archie Gray moved back to right-back after a more attacking role on Sunday.
Having played the majority of the season in that position, that was actually the first time he had done so since the draw to Sunderland over a month ago.
However, it was a performance like he’d never been away and one of his defensive involvements in the first half drew particular praise from his manager, as per the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Norwich played a long ball over the top of Joe Rodon for the pacey Jonathan Rowe to chase and at one stage, it looked as though he would get there ahead of Gray.
However, the 18-year-old somehow managed to get his body in between man and ball, before then carrying the ball out of danger and finding a teammate.
It was an incredible show of composure in such a pressured situation by Gray, but something which fans have come to expect now.
Gray heaped in praise after performance for Leeds
It was those ahead of him that will have undoubtedly won most of the headlines last night, but it was yet another performance which had the football world watching.
Ben Parker has urged Gareth Southgate to even give him a call-up for this summer’s EUROs after his ‘special‘ display, while Josh Windass was also left blown away.
Though central midfield will be his long-term position, it cannot be ignored just how good he was at right-back last night, up against a top class winger in Rowe.
