Leeds United 3-0 Norwich City: Ordering a chippy — The Square Ball 10/3/26

Joe's big coat

Words by: Chris McMenamy

After several minutes spent alleging unrepeatable things towards a fan in the away end, the Leeds fans in the South Stand erupted as Joel Piroe made it 3-0 to United. The vocal minority of Elland Road were speaking on behalf of 36,000 people whether they liked it or not. Leeds were cruising to a win against a brave but ill-equipped Norwich City side and almost everyone inside the ground had reached a state of zen that felt unachievable in recent weeks.

Despite being the third Championship outfit Leeds have faced in their FA Cup journey, the Peacocks’ fifth round tie was the first to feel in any way reminiscent of the 2024/25 centurion season. Dan James sped past opposing full-backs like they weren’t there, Ao Tanaka looked a step ahead of every Norwich midfielder and Joel Piroe finished a gilt-edged chance when it was presented to him. And they all did so without having to get out of second gear.

The difference between twelve months ago and the present day is that those players aren’t at full tilt for a multitude of reasons. Leeds aren’t chasing promotion — they’re running from a return to playing teams like Norwich on a regular basis. Adapting to life as a Premier League team requires a crash course in maturity, physicality and enduring multiple kicks in your sensitive parts, both figuratively and metaphorically. It’s been sink or swim, incredibly intense for six months now.

But a return to facing second tier opposition was exactly what this Leeds team needed after a week that made us want to forget the Premier League existed. Most felt they could also do with avoiding extra time and penalties, so it was a good thing that a much changed United side had the game wrapped up by half-time.

Only Ethan Ampadu and Gabriel Gudmundsson survived from the starting XI that faced Sunderland five days earlier — Gudmundsson taking the term ‘undroppable’ a bit too literally. Farke, banished to the stands for his one-game touchline ban, decided to continue with the intense rotation from rounds three and four. Sean Longstaff, Jaka Bijol and Dan James continued their return to match fitness alongside Piroe and Tanaka, while the lesser spotted Sebastiaan Bornauw had his customary 45 minute runout in defence before being withdrawn, clearly struggling to perform at the level expected of him.

By the time Longstaff opened the scoring on 32 minutes with a spinning first touch and volley, it was clear that Leeds were the better side despite pressure from an aggressive Norwich defence. Their early success in denying the Peacocks’ attempts to play out from the back were thwarted when Jaka Bijol stroked a pass over the top of their high line, causing chaos as goalkeeper Daniel Grimshaw clattered into one of his own defenders. Wilf Gnonto got between them to poke the ball into the path of Lukas Nmecha, who tapped into an empty net only to be told by VAR that his wee teammate had handballed with his upper arm.

Norwich were less confident from that moment onwards, allowing Leeds to pass with a little more intent than in the opening moments. Longstaff’s volley came after an excellent moment of initiative from Gudmundsson, who spotted two players were marking Gnonto and made a run into the channel for his winger to play a simple pass.

Gudmundsson followed up his assist for Longstaff by scoring Leeds’ second goal shortly before the end of the first half. A fortuitous deflection from James’ cross gave the left-back just enough time to poke the ball into the bottom right corner. “2-0 on your big day out,” cried the Leeds fans to the considerable number of travelling Canaries, a pleasant break from screaming at referee Darren England for denying what appeared to be three possible penalties against Norwich players throughout the half.

Any hope of a ‘giant killing’ died with Gudmundsson’s goal even though the away side came out and dominated the early exchanges after half-time. They were still only able to create one half chance when James Justin deflected a cross through the gap between Lucas Perri’s right foot and his near post, sending the ball across the face of goal to Anis Ben Slimane, whose shot deflected off Tanaka and out of play.

Joe Rodon appeared on screen sporting a blue beanie and a big trendy jacket, enjoying his rest from the sidelines. Such was the lack of peril in the second half that a brief glimpse of Big Joe proved about as exciting as things got until Joel Piroe added Leeds’ third and final goal in the 85th minute.

Substitute Anton Stach broke into the Norwich half and played Nmecha into space, who eventually found Piroe and he finished first time, like he had done so many times on the way to becoming Championship top scorer last season.

The cameras cut to Farke making a phone call in the stands as Piroe celebrated. In normal circumstances you’d have assumed he was discussing tactics with someone standing in the dugout, but with the game sewn up from about the 43rd minute I wouldn’t be surprised if he was ordering a chippy.

Leeds avoided an embarrassing defeat, which is more than can be said for Sunderland, who capitulated at League One’s bottom club Port Vale. Fringe players put in decent performances without knocking the manager’s door down, and others gained valuable match fitness. This game was a tonic to the dreary timewasting antics and conservative approach that saw Sunderland leave Elland Road with three points last Tuesday. It turns out that winning football matches is good for you.

But most importantly, United are only one game from Wembley. The last time they played in an FA Cup quarter-final was 2002/03, when Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United nicked a 1-0 win and set in motion the end of Terry Venables’ short reign in LS11. You have to go back to the Cold War to find the last semi-final appearance.

If United can get there, then they’ll have done more than anyone could have imagined. Many fans would trade a day out at Wembley for guaranteed Premier League safety, but football doesn’t work that way. Winning breeds confidence and we can hope that Sunday’s victory against Norwich City does exactly that for Farke’s side going into a crucial run of league games.

We can watch the FA Cup quarter-final draw with real interest for the first time in a generation. That’s got to be worth something, right?