Norwich City v Leeds United: Daniel Farke backs Albi after poor run

Farke spent four years in charge of the Canaries between 2017 and 2021 and led them to the championship title twice.

His side did the double against Carrow Road in the regular season, but the German says those results will have no bearing on this semi-final.

“It doesn’t matter anymore. All the negative or good things don’t matter anymore, this is a new competition,” he said.

“It’s good to finish third, to get the second draw at home, but we just have to focus on the here and now and not look back too much.”

Norwich boss David Wagner led his side to a strong second half of the season to secure a sixth-place finish, 17 points behind Leeds.

Like Farke, he doesn’t think the two teams’ regular season efforts matter right now.

“They were one of the favorites for promotion and they missed the first target, we achieved our first target, which was to finish in the top six,” he told BBC Radio Norfolk.

“Now they have exactly the same chance as us as the other two teams to be in the Premier League next season, 25%.

“That’s why what happened in the last 46 games is not relevant.”

Wagner also won promotion via the play-offs after leading Huddersfield to the Premier League in 2017.

The German hopes he can use that experience to give himself an advantage.

“I let the players know what you have to do to win the play-offs,” he said.

“In every situation in life when you’ve done something, trust that you can do it again. It doesn’t automatically mean you’ll do it again, but it’s certainly not a disadvantage.”

Striker Ashley Barnes will miss the first leg with a calf injury, but Christian Fassnacht is back after missing the Birmingham game last week.

Leeds forward Patrick Bamford will miss both legs of the semi-final with a knee injury that kept him out of the final two games of the regular season.