Troy Deeney has shared whether he thinks the disappointment for Wales last night will overspill into club football at Leeds United.
Leeds’ Welsh quartet saw their dream of playing in this summer’s EUROs come crashing down in Cardiff thanks to a penalty shootout defeat to Poland.
Both Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon played 120 minutes for Rob Page’s side, while Connor Roberts limped off injured, but it will be Dan James hurting the most at this present moment.
After all nine of the first spot-kicks were scored by both teams, it was James who went onto miss the decisive one to cost Wales a place at the tournament in three months’ time.
Due to the nature of the Championship, though, Leeds’ Welshman will have very little time to get over the defeat as the Whites return to action on Good Friday with a trip to Deeney’s former club Watford.
Given the intense standard of the promotion race this season, Leeds cannot afford too many slip-ups in the final eight matches and so Daniel Farke will need his Welshmen right back on it.
Deeney predicts whether Wales disappointment will impact Leeds promotion push
Deeney was asked live on talkSPORT by a Leeds supporter this morning whether Wales’ disappointment could potentially have an effect on their club form.
He gave a pretty resounding answer which should put Leeds fans’ minds at ease, suggesting they will all just want to get back on the pitch as soon as possible to put it to the back of their minds.
He said: “No, I don’t think so. It is a completely different thing, when you go with the national team and I have been there when the boys come back, they have this kind of, ‘wow, that was good, now let’s get back to it.’
“I saw a post from Virgil van Dijk last night that said great to be with the national team, but let’s focus on Liverpool. It is two different switches completely and especially some of them will have been friendlies, obviously Wales wasn’t.
“But I think the boys at Leeds are on a great push and will know, especially someone like Dan James, if he’s not playing well, the quality of player in their team, he’ll fall back onto the bench. He’ll just want to get back to football as quickly as possible.”
James can use Wales heartache as Leeds motivation
Under his own admission, James has enjoyed the best season of his career at Leeds and so cannot let this hamper his confidence at such a crucial time of the campaign.
James has scored 12 goals and provided seven assists in the league so far, and he undoubtedly has a massive part to play in the run-in, whether it’s from the bench, or the start.
In fact, James can actually use such crushing disappointment as motivation moving forward so he can avoid feeling such emotion again this season.
James could even be back in Leeds’ starting XI at Watford on Friday with Willy Gnonto an injury doubt, on what better way to forget about the events of this week than with a goal and win.
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