Leeds United beat Derby County on two occasions during the regular season in the Championship
Ian Holloway has backed Derby County to beat Leeds United in the playoffs because the disappointment of losing second spot will go against Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
Prior to the Easter period, the Whites were in pole position to go up to the Premier League via the automatic places, but a bad run of performances and results saw those hopes ended.
They suffered home defeats against the 10-men of Wigan and then lost at Brentford which all but ended their top-two hopes and booked Sheffield United a place, along with Norwich, to the promised land.
Speaking to Jim White on TalkSport (06/05/2019 at 10:30 pm), comments from Holloway about who will win the playoff semi-final tie will not go down well with the Leeds faithful.
“That’s not bad [that the first-leg is at Derby],” Holloway told TalkSport. “To be honest with you, it doesn’t matter [whether you are home or away first]. I think you can swing it as a manager mentally. If you can win that first game at home, for the second one the pressures on them. It’s about getting in front.
On who will progress: “When I got to my local, I will be killed if I don’t say Bielsa – I can’t write Leeds off with the season they have had. If you are going to put me on the spot, I will say I think Derby will do it because Leeds’ disappointment at not getting in the top two [will go against them].”
Leeds United will need to turn around their fortunes pretty quickly because currently, they are in a bad state of mind given what has happened in recent weeks.
On the last day of the regular season in the Championship, Bielsa and his players arguably produced their worst performance of the season.
They were beaten by already-relegated Ipswich, who were down to ten-men and have finished at the bottom of the Championship table.
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