Joel Piroe shocked Daniel Farke by doing something he’d never seen before as Leeds United crashed out of the Carabao Cup to Sheffield Wednesday.
After being humbly battered 5-0 by Arsenal at the weekend, the last thing Leeds United needed was a humiliating Carabao Cup exit to a Yorkshire rival.
Yet, Daniel Farke’s side were turgid against a young and brave Sheffield Wednesday side before being knocked out on penalties.
Henrik Pedersen’s side took the lead when Jamal Lowe’s shot squirmed through Karl Darlow’s legs but things looked to be back on track when Jayden Bogle fired in the leveller.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin had multiple chances to win the match but failed to take any, leading to a shoot-out in which he also missed.
He wasn’t the only culprit, as Sean Longstaff and Joel Piroe also failed to convert, meaning Leeds didn’t score in a shoot-out for the first time in their history.
Farke bemoaned his side’s luck afterwards and revealed he had never seen Piroe miss from the spot before.
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Joel Piroe’s penalty miss vs Sheffield Wednesday was the first time Daniel Farke saw him miss
Piroe was wearing the armband following Sam Byram’s removal and the striker got off to a bad start when he lost both coin flips to decide who would go first and which end the shoot-out would take place.
After Barry Bannan converted the opener, Piroe stepped up, stuttered his run-up and saw Ethan Horvath save his tame effort.
Calvert-Lewin would then blaze over the bar before Horvath saved again from Longstaff to secure a memorable victory.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, the manager said: “It sums up that normally our safest penalty taker, Joel Piroe, never seen him miss a penalty, that he’s the first one who goes and misses.
“Also, Dominic and Sean, our experienced players on the top level. It happens sometimes in football.
“Sometimes these games are written in the stars, so congratulations to Sheffield Wednesday, they have fought really hard and deserve to be in the next round.”
Joel Piroe penalty record vs Lukas Nmecha and Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Farke isn’t wrong, Piroe had not missed a penalty since signing for Leeds, having taken three previously.
The Belgian had scored from the spot against Middlesbrough, Preston and Cardiff City for the Whites before he was denied on Tuesday.
Piroe has scored 11 penalties in his career, but has now missed three. The others came for Swansea City against QPR in 2022 and then for PSV’s Under-19s in 2017.
Despite his reliability from the spot, Piroe does now have competition to be the club’s No.1 penalty taker.
Lukas Nmecha scored the big-pressure penalty to give Leeds an opening-day win against Everton and he has scored a massive 25 in his career, missing on four occasions but not since 2021.
Calvert-Lewin had only missed once from the spot in his career before the defeat, while scoring eight times.
Though it’s hard to believe after Tuesday, Leeds do have a lot of good penalty takers.
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