Daniel Farke on why Leeds United will not dwell on FA Cup semi-final defeat — Yorkshire Post 28/4/26

By Stuart Rayner

LEEDS UNITED will not dwell on defeat in their first FA Cup semi-final for 39 years, according to manager Daniel Farke – not with a job still to be done in the Premier League.

Victory at home to already-relegated Burnley on Friday will all-but secure Leeds' Premier League status, opening up a nine-point gap to Tottenham Hotspur with only 12 available to the North London side.

It would take them to 43 points, one more than any team has been relegated from the division with.

But defeat would offer further encouragement to the three teams chasing them, all of whom won at the weekend, and all of whom play after the Whites this week. Leeds have only three games after facing the Clarets, two away to relegation rivals West Ham and Spurs.

So it is important not to let the disappointment of Wembley, and especially their first-half performance, affect them.

"We don't dwell under this loss," insisted Farke. "We had nothing to lose on Sunday, just a lot to win.

"We are disappointed we didn't win.

"We gave our club so much to be proud of, the best run (in the competition) in (nearly) four decades. (There are) many positives to take out of it.

"We just concentrate on our bread and butter now, to survive at Premier League level. We have a good chance – 40 points with four to play.

"Right now, like so far during the whole season, we concentrate on each game to win as many points as possible.

"And if you do so, then we have also great chance to achieve our main goal, and this is to stay up, which would be terrific and historic."

Leeds have now failed to score in their last four trips to Wembley, and they are still to beat Chelsea in cup football.

But after the last six newly-promoted sides to the Premier League were all relegated at the first attempt, consolidating their place in the world's most lucrative domestic football league was always going to be the club's over-riding priority at a time they have started work on an expensive expansion of their Elland Road home.

But Farke believes his team can take positives from their longest run in the FA Cup since 1987.

He said it showed "that we have also the mentality in then difficult periods and crunch time periods to be very clinical and too win games. Otherwise you don't take part in the semi-final.

"Also the quality, because we've had difficult fixtures as well. And great character because we also rotated a lot so we needed to use the whole team (squad).

"So there were many positive things to take out of it and perhaps to learn out of Sunday's game once it's another big game.

"Hopefully we don't have to wait another 40 years until we achieve this again and once this opportunity comes around we can be a bit less nervous and a bit more business-as-usual.

"But if then it's no guarantee, because there's also another side who tries to go through.

"But we can be very proud."

Spurs have been hit with the news that the injury which took in-form forward Xavi Simons off during Saturday's win over Wolverhampton Wanderers is an anterior cruciate ligament injury that will keep the Dutchman out of this summer's World Cup on top of ending his domestic season.

Although clearly not in that bracket, Leeds are assessing the damage to Gabriel Gudmundsson’s hamstring on Sunday.

The Swede completed the game, but only because Leeds had used their full compliment of substitutes by the time he picked up the problem.

West Ham are at Brentford on Saturday, Tottenham visit Aston Villa on Sunday evening, and Nottingham Forest play at Chelsea on the May Day bank holiday.