Leeds United needed the heroics of Lucas Perri to see off a resilient Birmingham City side in the FA Cup, as Daniel Farke’s side progress to the fifth round.
United’s Premier League survival took a back seat this afternoon with the FA Cup fourth round taking precedent.
For Leeds, it was another trip to a promotion-chasing Championship side. Having seen off Derby County professionally, we travelled to Birmingham City.
Leeds United made to work for FA Cup victory over Birmingham City with penalty shootout win
Again, it was a drab first half from Leeds with the changes made by Daniel Farke proving to badly affect rhythm.
The Blues perhaps should have been in front by the interval, striking the crossbar when Jay Stansfield was denied by an outstanding save from Lucas Perri.
After half-time, Ethan Ampadu’s introduction provided much-needed impetus for Leeds. Shortly after the break, Noah Okafor drove on and fed Lukas Nmecha, whose stunning drive gave us the lead.
However, we couldn’t see out a clean sheet in 90 minutes. Patrick Roberts, with the aid of a huge deflection, scored late on to take the game to extra-time and then penalties.
Perri was spotted taking a leaf out of Jordan Pickford’s book prior to the shootout. He consulted a water bottle kitted out with a cheat sheet of Birmingham’s penalty takers and their likely shooting patterns.
It paid dividends as Perri denied Tommy Doyle before goalscorer Roberts skied the Blues’ next. Then, Leeds won 4-2 as Sean Longstaff rolled home the winner.
Leeds United players crowd Lucas Perri after match-winning display
Perri has come in for a lot of stick since joining Leeds for £15.6million from Lyon. He’s not filled fans with confidence in our goalmouth, and has uncharacteristically been singled out for criticism from Farke.
However, this game was a chance to regain some confidence and boy did he do that.
As Longstaff converted the deciding spot-kick, the players swarmed the Brazilian to celebrate what was a vital good performance.
It’s been a season where Perri has been consistently chastised on numerous facets of his game. So, a commanding display that’s seen us through is perhaps just the tonic.
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