Leeds United face Southampton in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on Sunday.
The two sides know it is make or break in their quest to seal an immediate return to the Premier League, with it the final game of English football’s regular season.
Having missed out on automatic promotion due to a poor end to the campaign, Leeds overcame that disappointment by easing past Norwich City in the semi-finals by an aggregate score of 4-0.
Southampton, meanwhile – who had also still harnessed hopes of the top two in the final month of the season – defeated West Bromwich Albion 3-1 to set-up a tasty looking final.
It is almost impossible to call who will come out on top given Leeds finished three points clear in the table and Southampton won both league meetings.
What is Meslier’s penalty saving record for Leeds?
Due to how close this game looks on paper, there have already been a couple of pundits predicting this to go all the way to penalties.
David Prutton and Ally McCoist are the two to do so, so far, with both having backed Leeds to get the job done from 12 yards, which would be no good for anyone’s nerves.
Just 12 months ago, Luton Town defeated Coventry City on penalties at Wembley to seal promotion to the Premier League. This was just the second time spot-kicks were needed at this stage since 2002.
If it is to go that far, Illan Meslier will end up proving pivotal to Leeds’ chances of winning. Goalkeepers are often the ones who are all the difference in such situations.
Having said that, Meslier will have to vastly improve on his penalty saving record in a Leeds shirt if Daniel Farke‘s side are to come out on top.
Excluding penalty shootouts, Meslier has saved just one of the 19 spot-kicks he has faced for Leeds, which came against West Ham United back in March 2021. Incidentally, Jesse Lingard went onto score the rebound anyway.
On the other hand, Meslier has won the one and only penalty shootout he has been involved in for Leeds back in September 2021 at Fulham in the EFL Cup. He saved one in a 6-5 victory.
If he was the hero on Sunday, it really would’ve been a complete full circle for Meslier given he was dropped for Leeds’ final four matches last season as a result of his poor performances.
What is Karl Darlow’s career record with penalties?
As he has been all season, Karl Darlow is almost certainly set to be Leeds’ number two on Sunday and there have been plenty of occasions in years gone by where managers have swapped goalkeepers just for a shootout.
Louis van Gaal’s decision to do so with Tim Krul during the World Cup quarter-finals for Netherlands in 2014 is one that always springs to mind of it actually being a success.
At 33, Darlow is considerably more experienced than Meslier and so has faced almost double the amount of penalties as the Frenchman during his career.
Excluding penalty shootouts, Darlow has saved five of 36, which again, isn’t a great record and certainly isn’t enough of a swing to warrant Farke making a late switch.
Despite having only joined last summer, Darlow has also already been between the sticks for Leeds in a penalty shootout. This came at Salford City in August, as he failed to save any in a 9-8 defeat. His performance in that shootout left Gary Neville dumbfounded.
There was one he did manage to stop, but he was punished for encroachment and so the home side were able to take it again, and score.