Stoke City manager Steven Schumacher has shared his verdict on Leeds United’s automatic promotion hopes after a 1-0 defeat last night.
In a typical midweek Championship encounter, Leeds were made to work for the three points and did so courtesy of Dan James‘ deflected first half effort.
Perhaps understandably given the nature of the schedule, Leeds were a long way from their best but were solid enough in the second half to restrict Stoke to few clear cut chances.
At one stage last night, Leeds had looked as though they were moving back into the top two, until Ipswich Town produced one of their customary late shows to come back and take the three points.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, though, Schumacher has backed Leeds to win promotion to the Premier League due to the quality they have in the squad.
Schumacher tips Leeds for promotion
He said: “It’s right up there with the best atmospheres in the country, it’s class. We were gutted that we lost the game but we can take confidence from it. I think Leeds will get back to the Premier League, they have the quality to do it.”
It was important for Leeds to return to winning ways against Stoke having drawn with Huddersfield Town on Saturday, given the way Ipswich are performing. That is now 31 points from a possible 33 in 2024.
Farke has been really unhappy with the scheduling of Leeds’ matches recently and with another short turnaround on Friday, it was just all about picking up three points yesterday.
With Leeds playing first, though, they can put the pressure on the two sides above them, who both also face away matches on Saturday, and the potential of dropped points.
There is now just 10 matches remaining of the season and Leeds just need to keep picking up wins as much as they can in order to keep the pressure on those around them.
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