Birmingham City 1-1 Leeds United (P): Stocking up on tinfoil — Square Ball 17/2/26
Up 4 the cup
Words by: Chris McMenamy
The last time Daniel Farke took Leeds United to St Andrew’s,
he was only six weeks into his tenure and already looked worn out. Wilf Gnonto
had gone on strike, relegation loan clauses kept popping up out of the woodwork
and a weak Leeds side lost 1-0 to an injury-time penalty. Things are much
better in LS11 right now, yet still Farke looked like he’d been through the
ringer as Leeds held on for penalties against Championship side Birmingham
City.
There’s nothing quite like Leeds United to make you feel
alive and angry on a sleepy Sunday lunchtime. The FA Cup fourth round is often
where Leeds’ dreams of Wembley go to die — when they actually make it that far
— so a trip to Birmingham failed to evoke any real emotion among the fanbase
except the 5,500 travelling diehards.
I was relatively relaxed about this game, happy to have a
cup run but swearing I wouldn’t throw a tantrum if Leeds did what they tend to
do in cup ties. Then Leeds decided to put in one of those performances that we
all feel only Leeds can. Birmingham ran rings around United for 45 minutes but
thankfully went into half-time without a goal.
Lukas Nmecha put Leeds ahead in the 49th minute with a
fantastic strike, almost out of nowhere. A quick break and Noah Okafor through
ball gave Nmecha just enough time and space to beat a defender and lash his
shot past goalkeeper Ryan Allsop.
Just as we settled in for another tense half of Birmingham
pressure, Leeds were in front. It should have been plain sailing from there but
by the time Patrick Roberts’ last-minute shot deflected off James Justin’s
noggin and beyond the reach of Lucas Perri, it felt inevitable despite the fact
it took the hosts an hour and a half to score.
Farke introduced Brenden Aaronson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin
around the 70th minute as per usual. Joel Piroe replaced an out of form Ao
Tanaka shortly after, then Jayden Bogle came on as Noah Okafor hobbled off with
a hamstring injury. All relatively attacking changes, yet Leeds wasted time as
they tried to hold onto what they had right until Roberts’ equaliser.
I found myself thinking that the longer the game went on,
the funnier it would be if Leeds were to win and the players did their best to
add slapstick value to extra time. Leeds’ attacking fluidity was laid bare as
Calvert-Lewin tried to shoot from outside the box and hit Aaronson square in
the head, which did at least appear to wake him up a little after performing
like the old Aaronson for almost an hour.
A full debut for Facundo Buonanotte piqued my curiosity but
his performance and subsequent half-time hooking not only justified Farke’s
unwillingness to use him, but makes signing him an even greater head scratcher.
Ethan Ampadu stepped in at half-time to fill the void left by Buonanotte and
offered reassurance to Sean Longstaff and Tanaka, both of who had failed to
take control of the game like the Premier League players they’re supposed to
be. I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s us saying buona notte to Buonanotte after
a nothing half of football.
Farke’s changes throughout the second half were evidently
made with a Leeds win inside ninety minutes in mind. No rest for Gabriel
Gudmundsson, who had played 300 minutes of football in nine days by the time
referee Paul Tierney blew for penalties.
The biggest Leeds winner from this cup expedition has to be
Perri, rotated in for Karl Darlow. Perri saved Birmingham’s third penalty,
taken by Tommy Doyle, which gave Leeds the advantage and proved crucial as
Roberts then stepped up and missed, allowing Longstaff to score Leeds’ fourth
and winning penalty.
“I’m really happy for Lucas because it’s been – not sort of
a tough time for him – but he deserves it today,” Longstaff told TNT Sports as
Perri nodded alongside him. An excellent first half save from Jay Stansfield
formed part of a generally solid performance from Perri, who overcame the great
injustice of TNT’s cameras zooming in on his water bottle with information on
all Birmingham penalty takers in clear view, which sparked disgust from
Jermaine Beckford standing pitchside with Robbie Savage doing punditry. “They
didn’t have their numbers on the shorts so it was difficult for me to see [who
was taking],” Perri told TNT Sports after the game, perhaps saving the camera
holder from a bollocking from some.
Leeds exorcised the ghosts of their League Cup defeat at
Sheffield Wednesday back in August, with three of the four penalties scored
being taken by players who missed their spot kicks that night: Piroe, Longstaff
and Calvert-Lewin. Few expected Aaronson to perfectly place his penalty with
precision and power, yet he did. For all the supposed Leeds-iness of the
performance, the players deserve some credit for digging out the victory when
all signs pointed the other way.
There was some added joy at seeing Birmingham punished after
Stansfield tried to get up in Piroe’s face as they passed each other during the
shootout. Piroe walked up to take his penalty, had Stansfield yapping at him
like a chihuahua and then slotted his spot kick home without a care in the
world.
TNT Sports’ coverage was desperate for a Birmingham win,
with the exception of the beautifully biased Beckford, yet it was Leeds who
threw their name in the hat for round five and gave the ever present away
support something to shout about, not that they needed it.
It was a sloppy performance from Leeds, butchering attacks
that could have won the game late on and finding themselves defending for their
lives against weaker opposition at several points, but football is a results
business. The FA Cup is a knockout competition and Leeds landed the hammer blow
in the end. “For me personally, I’d love another parade,” Ampadu told TNT
Sports. The cup run is on and Leeds’ captain is desperate to be on a bus
crawling wearing a traffic cone on his head.
