Leeds United kicked off the new year with a 3-0 victory over Birmingham City on Monday.
The Whites had been cut adrift from the top three over the festive period after back-to-back defeats on the road against Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion.
However, Leeds’ form at Elland Road has been superb this season and Birmingham provide the perfect game to get back to winning ways, with Patrick Bamford even on the scoresheet for the first time since April.
Dan James and Crysencio Summerville were also on the scoresheet for Leeds, both of which came from assists by Junior Firpo, who came off the bench early on for the injured Sam Byram.
Firpo provided two neat cut-backs for both goals and wrote on Instagram after the match to thank Leeds fans for their support, in what is a great start to 2024 for him personally.
Brahim Diaz reacts to Firpo display
Firpo wrote: “Great start of the year. Thank you to everyone today, I love the atmosphere.” Real Madrid star Brahim Diaz is among those to have reacted to his performance after the game.
Diaz and Firpo were teammates briefly for Spain’s U21s side several years ago and is clearly delighted to have seen him produce an impressive performance for Leeds.
Firpo has had it tough at Leeds since his move from Barcelona in 2021 but hopefully this can be a catalyst to a decent run of form over the second half of the season.
The 27-year-old has been linked with a move to former club Real Betis in the last few weeks but showed no signs his head was elsewhere with an impressive performance.
Leeds are keen on signing a new left-back this month amid both Firpo and Byram’s injury struggles, though he is clearly now keen to make that position his own.
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