Norwich City manager David Wagner has been previewing his side’s Championship play-off semi-final with Leeds United.
The two sides are set to go head-to-head at Carrow Road on Sunday in the first of two legs to decide who will progress through to Wembley to face either Southampton or West Bromwich Albion.
The return fixture will take place at Elland Road next Thursday and Leeds will be hoping they can take a positive result into that match with home advantage behind them.
Not a single one of the four sides competing in the play-offs will enter them in good form, but it is arguably Leeds who have the biggest task getting themselves over the end of the season.
A run of four defeats in their last six matches saw them agonizingly miss out on a place in the top two, and no side in Championship history has ever gone onto win the play-offs with such a record.
Wagner makes ‘on the beach’ claim about Leeds ahead of Norwich clash
Though OPTA has Leeds as the favourites to be promoted having finished third, supporters are not overly confident of their side’s chances.
Of the other three teams in the top six, Norwich are actually the only side Leeds managed to beat in the regular season, as they completed a league double over the Canaries.
With all those factors in mind, Wagner has already looked to pile all the pressure on Leeds ahead of Sunday and he did so again yesterday in his press conference.
The Norwich boss believes Leeds should have already been ‘on the beach’ amid the way they blew automatic promotion, but now insists their chances of going up are the exact same as his Norwich side.
He said: “The truth is they know more or less everything about us and we know everything about them. Momentum from my experience is not the deciding factor. Had they beaten QPR and Southampton they’d be on the beach now, whereas we’ve been fighting.
“90 points was not enough to reach their target of automatic promotion. They now have a 25% chance like we do. You always ask in life to have a chance and we will be there and ready.”
Sam Allardyce shares who he wants to win play-offs
It is now 12 months ago since Sam Allardyce spent four matches in charge at Leeds, with his caretaker spell not enough to keep the Whites in the Premier League.
Allardyce is very much backing his old club to do the business and then stabilise again in the top-flight, having clearly enjoyed his time at Elland Road.
He said: “Obviously I want Leeds because I was there last season and I found it, in only a short time, a great club. Hopefully they get back there and get some stability in terms of trying to stay there this time.
“It’s been a good season for them but if they don’t quite make it, like with everything else, what happens financially? They have to cut financially again then and it becomes more difficult again then.”
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
