The Championship is heading for a typically unpredictable end to the season. With this year’s edition of the play-offs looking increasingly hard to call, David Wagner’s Norwich City are well-placed to launch an unlikely promotion bid and may be facing the perfect opponents in their semi-final.
For it’s been a case of so near yet so far for Leeds United, who fell short of automatic promotion – narrowly edged out by Leicester City and Ipswich Town in an exciting three-way-battle for the top two spots – despite accumulating a points total that would have seen the Whites’ return to the Premier League in three of the last five seasons in the division.
Although Leeds have enjoyed, on the whole, a much more successful campaign than Norwich by almost every metric, the Championship play-offs have a habit of throwing up unpredictable results. Over two legs, past performances can be thrown out of the window. The Canaries may have finished seventeen points behind Leeds, but they have more than enough quality to produce a turn-up for the books.
After all, Daniel Farke’s side have looked exhausted in recent weeks. The Whites’ downturn in form of late could be symptomatic of a team that has run out of steam following their failure to achieve automatic promotion. Ultimately, the play-offs have always been the second-choice route to the Premier League promised land for Leeds. Norwich, though, have been building towards this target for many months now.
The Canaries should be primed for the semi-final and must be inspired by their opponents’ most recent experience in the competition. Back in 2019, Leeds were on the receiving end of one of the classic play-off turnarounds. Derby County’s 4-2 win at Elland Road sets the standard for unlikely outcomes after essentially being Leeds’ whipping boys in three of their four meetings that season.
The Elland Road atmosphere can work to Norwich’s advantage
Derby’s 4-2 victory at Elland Road may not have been possible against another team at contrasting ground in front of a different set of fans.
