‘We have to tell the truth’ Norwich City boss David Wagner admits Leeds United

The old saying in football is that the table doesn’t lie. Never was that more so than last night at Elland Road as third-placed Leeds United hammered sixth-placed Norwich City to reach the Championship play-off final at Wembley.

Three first-half goals, sparked by Ilia Gruev’s free-kick after just seven minutes, put Leeds on the road to Wembley, with the Canaries no match for the pace, energy and quality they showed Leeds. It was the best performance for some time from Daniel Farke’s men as Norwich were cut short in a result that could and should have been even more convincing.

The teams finished 17 points clear of each other in the Championship this season and that bump in class was on display at an enthusiastic Elland Road crowd, a fact Canaries boss David Wagner had to recognise.

Read more: Elland Road ‘energized’ Leeds United as crowd dismantled Norwich

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“We were poor. It was a huge, great occasion where we didn’t get to our level unfortunately. That’s one reason, another is that to be honest, Leeds were very good,” admitted Wagner.

“If you think about where we came from last season, we finished 13th, we took a step up, we finished in the play-offs, competitive in the first leg, absolutely not competitive in the second, against a very good Leeds team. Each one has seen what they are capable of, with many problems that we have seen this season. Everyone saw the difference tonight between Leeds United and us.

“We know what it’s going to be like (Elland Road), it wasn’t a surprise. Unfortunately we’re stretching their energy with the mistakes we made and the goals scored by Leeds United. “It’s disappointing. Obviously a poor performance from us, Leeds were very good. We’ve done everything you shouldn’t. We conceded a very easily avoidable goal very early on.

“Against Leeds away you have to stay in the game as long as you can and then you can get something, we did more or less the reverse, conceding early, conceding three in a half, it’s more or less impossible to turn around. around.”