Norwich City 1-1 Leeds United: The Champo (A) — Square Ball 2/10/24

Save the fireworks

Written by: Rob Conlon

It was difficult to know what to expect from Leeds’ trip to Norwich. Last season our two visits to Carrow Road resulted in the madcap comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2, and the goalless bore draw in the play-off semi-final. What were we going to get this time? The chaos of last October, or the timid — albeit sensible — reset of May?

In the end, Daniel Farke described the 1-1 draw as an “advertisement for the Championship”. And he was right. Or perhaps more accurately, it was the perfect advertisement for what was shaping up to be a classic Leeds away defeat in the Championship. Injury to a key player in a position where we already had a key player injured in the last game? Tick. An early penalty gifting the opposition something to hang on to? Tick. A diabolically bad dickhead ref? The biggest tick of them all.

But still, despite all the head-banging frustration of the above, this was a good, fun game of football! And Norwich played their part in making it so. With David Wagner no longer in the dugout, replaced by their latest trendy project Johannes Hoff Thorup, Norwich provided Leeds with a novelty in this division: an opponent willing to press high, commit players forward, and leave plenty of space all over the pitch.

The problem for Leeds was that there was also plenty of space in front of our defence. Even before Ilia Gruev was crocked, there was an Ethan Ampadu-shaped hole in midfield. Within the opening minutes, Norwich midfielder Anis Ben Slimane received a pass near the halfway line with his back to Leeds’ goal and left Gruev and Ao Tanaka running into Norwich’s half of the pitch with a simple turn that fooled them both, drawing Leeds’ defence out of shape and allowing Josh Sargent to get in behind.

A similar pattern repeated itself for the penalty, Junior Firpo and Largie Ramazani failing to stop Ante Crnac cutting in from the right and reaching the edge of Leeds’ box. Crnac slipped the ball to Sargent, who tempted a dozy foul from Joe Rodon. Sargent’s penalty was placed in a similar spot to Pascal Struijk’s penalty at Cardiff, but Illan Meslier was too slow diving to his left to recreate the save. Meslier later made an excellent stop to prevent Rodon scoring what would have been an unfortunate own-goal, but kicked the ball all night like a goalkeeper who’d put his boots on the wrong way around in another evening that failed to inspire confidence in Leeds’ number one.

Thankfully, Leeds had Wilf Gnonto to inspire the rest of his teammates, ironically maturing into the creative leader of the attack by reverting to his ‘Keep Calm And Give It To Willy’ phase that he embraced as a precocious teenager in the Premier League. Gnonto was superb all night at Carrow Road, fashioning Leeds’ brightest moments before Norwich’s opener and hitting the post immediately afterwards, completing the most Leedsy of Leedsy starts to a game. While Tanaka and Gruev’s replacement Joe Rothwell looked vulnerable whenever Norwich countered, they grew into the game in possession, both showing eyes for a forward pass that could allow Leeds to get the ball to Gnonto and test how many defenders he could beat at once.

It was Gnonto’s imagination that created the equaliser. Leeds’ attack was in danger of falling into the trap of standing across the opposition backline waiting for a chance to fall to them, only to nullify their own threat in doing so. But Gnonto dropped a yard or two deeper, giving him the time and space to subtly turn Kenny McLean, and the angle to slip Largie Ramazani in on goal. The chance still took some finishing, which Ramazani applied with cool aplomb.

Chances followed for Aaronson and Bogle, both blazing over when they required the composure of Ramazani. Gnonto was fouled in the penalty area in the build up to Aaronson’s chance, but Leeds were never going to be able to rely on a helping hand from ref Steve Martin, who booked Gnonto for complaining instead. The game was there for the taking, for either side — Struik was needed to make a brilliant last-ditch tackle to prevent Norwich going through one-on-one, while Aaronson worked hard late on to block what could have been a dangerous cross into Leeds’ six-yard box.

With three points up for grabs, both teams ended the match happy enough to settle for a point, worn out by a game played at a much higher tempo than either are used to in the Champo. Farke was scolded for his decision to replace Ramazani and Gnonto, but with a trip to Sunderland on Friday night completing a run of three games in six days, he played it safe rather than risk the hypotheticals. Leeds could have nicked a goal with their best wingers on the pitch, or they could have been caught on the counter with their wingers tiring. Even worse, they could have got injured with the squad already worryingly stretched so early in the season.

Given the night started with everything going wrong, it ended with Leeds having played with personality and graft to earn a result away from home at a ground where the hosts haven’t been beaten since Bonfire Night last year. In the long slog of a Championship season, that’s something to be valued. We can save the fireworks for later.