Carrow Road is braced to stage a Sunday lunchtime classic as Norwich and Leeds prepare to meet in the first leg of their Championship play-off semi-final.
Norwich finished the season in sixth place, some 17 points adrift from third-placed Leeds but with a home record to be proud of.
Leeds, meanwhile, will hope they have overcome a dismal end to the season which saw them miss out on automatic promotion.
- LEEDS UNITED TO WIN
- OVER 1.5 FIRST HALF GOALS
- UNDER 4.5 CARDS
Farke To Complete Treble Over Norwich
Leeds’ boss Daniel Farke has completed the regular-season double over former club Norwich and the Whites should be trusted to make it three out of three at Carrow Road on Sunday.
Farke, twice a promotion winner with Norwich, has spent the week picking up his side after the disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion on the final weekend.
Indeed, Leeds were top until a few weeks back but just one win in their last six left them in third place and condemned to the play-offs.
Leeds should have enough experience through their ranks to be able to deal with their late-season blip which was hardly catastrophic. And anyway, Norwich were hardly flying at the back end of term, failing to win four of their last five including pretty poor efforts against Bristol City and relegated Birmingham.
Farke’s Whites have beaten Norwich twice this season on their way to finishing on 90 points, 17 points superior to the Canaries.
Norwich’s home form has been outstanding this season - 15 wins and just four losses - but having won there once this season, one of 11 road wins, the Yorkshiremen should travel with confidence.
Expect First-Half Fireworks
Only free-scoring Ipswich and Southampton scored more first-half goals than Norwich or Leeds this season while even Sheffield Wednesday conceded fewer goals in the first period than the Canaries.
First-half action has rarely been absent in games involving these two, with the first-half goal tally in Leeds’ matches standing at 70 and in Norwich’s games, 71.
Common sense tells you first-leg ties are games you don’t want to lose rather than go all out to win, but that flies in the face of the facts.
And the last thing Norwich need is going to Elland Road having lost the home leg. They will be positive but Leeds always are, and this has the potential for goals, with at least two coming in the first period.
Expect Low Card Count
Josh Smith will referee Sunday’s showpiece which may have high stakes but won’t necessarily produce a high card count.
Yes, there will be tension in the air, but these are two of the Championship’s better behaved sides with Norwich averaging 1.9 cards per game and Leeds 1.6.
Their previous meeting at the end of January saw three yellow cards produced and there is no obvious reason to believe they will pile up more than four this weekend.
