Leeds United 3 Norwich City 0: Whites dodge shocks Sunday as FA Cup quarter-final draw opens up — Yorkshire Post 8/3/26

By Stuart Rayner

On what was shaping up to be FA Cup shocks Sunday, Leeds United professionally put themselves in their first quarter-final draw for 23 years, just not as comfortably as they had threatened to.

With Southampton knocking out Fulham and Port Vale disposing of Sunderland in the earlier kick-offs, the potential for a Football League clean sweep over the Premier League was there, especially with nine Leeds personnel changes, plus a positional one for Ethan Ampadu, for the visit of Norwich City.

It almost backfired for the Whites at Birmingham City in round four, but having overpowered the Canaries in the first half, they saw it out in the second for a 3-0 win.

When Ao Tanaka put a simple square ball from deep out of play early on, the nerves started to twitch.

But it only took 10 minutes or so for him and his team to find their feet and turn it into some very reminiscent of many of last season's home games in the Championship.

Now, a club that does not really do quarter-finals suddenly has Monday evening's draw potentially opening up for them.

Long balls over the top were proving fruitful for the Whites, faster than their Norwich counterparts, and the first time they found the net it could barely have been much more route one.

When Jaka Bijol launched the ball, Willy Gnonto was the third favourite, but as Kellen Fisher and Daniel Grimshaw got in one another's way, Gnonto touched the ball on for Nmecha to tap in.

This is the first round of the FA Cup to feature video assistant referees, and Thomas Kirk spotted it was Gnonto's arm which had helped the ball on. Darren England was called to the pitchside monitor and changed his decision.

With various pushes and shoves ignored at Stockley Park – most notably on Nmecha as Daniel James laid a raking Ampadu pass on for him – "f*** VAR" became "where the f*** is VAR" as the interminable delays we had been spared in rounds three and four reappeared.

Nmecha shot over on the turned after a lovely move flowing through Tanaka, Gudmundsson and Joel Piroe but five minutes later he was shown how it was done.

Gudmundsson battled to the byline and on the stretch put a difficult ball over but Sean Longstaff controlled it behind him, swivelled and volleyed in.

Kirk disallowed a Gnonto goal for offside before Gudmundsson got a very deserved first goal for the club in the 43rd minute.

Again, Leeds were able to release James and when Sam Field got a touch on the ball in, Gudmundsson finished smartly.

But Leeds were so sloppy at the start of the second half they had to break into the substitutes they had probably been hoping not to use.

Liam Gibbs shot over, and Kenny McLean straight at Piroe, who saved low from Paris Maghoma.

Both sides saw the immediate benefit of substitutions.

Norwich made three just as the sun came down, allowing Piroe and Ali Ahmed to break their Ramadan fast largely unnoticed and spare Elland Road some unwanted scrutiny.

Errol Mundle-Smith and Anis Ben Slimane, both substitutes and the game's other practising Muslims, combined within seconds, the former squeezing through a cross the latter – in space – should have done better than hit the far post from.

But Leeds looked much better for the introduction of Pascal Struijk, Anton Stach and Jayden Bogle too. Within a minute Gnonto had fed Piroe for a strike Vladan Kovacevic – on for Grimshaw at the interval – tipped onto his crossbar.

Nmecha twice went close, dragging his first shot wide and seeing the second saved from a tight angle.

But it took until the 85th minute to confirm the result, Stach winning the ball in midfield and finding Nmecha to pick out Piroe for a lovely curling finish.

It allowed Gudmundsson at least a short breather and Sam Byram a rare and well-received run-out against his former club.

When a Gnonto cross was pushed to him, Nmecha should have had a deserved goal, but never managed to get his feet right.

“Wemberlee, Wemberlee," sang Elland Road, as is pretty much the rule for a team winning an FA Cup tie. Now one win away, they may well be heading there.