Key events
4 min: Leeds come again down the left and Okafor’s cross is blocked out for a corner by Ward. Tanaka takes but Ward heads away at the near post.
2 min: Leeds’ first foray into the Derby box comes up short as Langas comes across and clears his lines.
KICK-OFF
Ao Tanaka gets the ball rolling for Leeds, who are in blue.
The teams are heading out at Pride Park. Robbie Savage, working as a pundit pitchside, has been doing some keepy-uppies with a ball boy. Anthony Taylor is in charge for this one. The scene is set: kick-off is next.
Oscar Fraulo makes his debut for Derby this lunchtime having signed on a deal until 2029 from Borussia Mönchengladbach last week. The midfielder played for Denmark at the Under-21 Euros last summer and scored his first Bundesliga goal in November.
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Karl Darlow gets the nod in goal for Leeds today but there is still no place for Illan Meslier in the matchday squad – he’s not been involved on the bench since November.
Leeds’ first-choice keeper, Lucas Perri, came under fire in midweek for his performance against Newcastle, particularly for his failure to keep out Harvey Barnes’s late winner. Daniel Farke didn’t exactly rush to Perri’s defence at full time:
I can’t lie, I can’t say how he was man of the match and there were unbelievable saves. Of course, you need also sometimes in a crucial moment a proper save from your goalkeeper. Of course, today it was definitely a situation where you should save the ball. I can’t lie and pretend any other, that it would be a different scenario because otherwise you wouldn’t believe me any more. I name it how I see it and at this moment, certainly I can’t protect him from the criticism that he should have saved it.
Form guide
Derby’s last six: WDDLWL
Position: 13th in Championship
Top scorer: Carlton Morris (10 goals)
Derby are still without Carlton Morris, who hasn’t played since November because of a knee injury.
Leeds’ last six: DWDDDL
Position: 16th in Premier League
Top scorer: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (9 goals)
Dominic Calvert-Lewin starts this one on the bench for Leeds. Their starting strikers – Joel Piroe and Lukas Nmecha – have four goals between them this season.
Championship playoffs 2019: Definitely the most memorable meeting in recent history between these two was the second leg of the playoff semi-finals at Elland Road in 2019. After Frank Lampard had taken Marcelo Bielsa to task on spying on opposing teams, his Derby produced an extraordinary turnaround to book their place in the final at Wembley. Cue the celebrations and those songs.
I’ve had a guess at a Leeds formation but they’ve got so many attacking players in their team that we’ll have to wait until kick-off to be sure.
There are two attack-minded wingers (Gnonto and Harrison) and another three forwards (Okafor, Nmecha and Piroe), with no recognised full-backs in the XI.
Starting lineups
The teams are in from Pride Park:
Derby (4-4-1-1): Zetterstrom; Ward, Langås, Batth, Forsyth; Brereton Díaz, Travis, Fraulo, Blackett-Taylor; Clarke; The ointment
Subs: O’Donnell, Agyemang, Brewster, Weimann, Ozoh, Elder, Adams, Nelson, Eames.
Leeds (3-4-3): Darlow; Bornauw, Bijol, Ampadu; Gnonto, Gruev, Tanaka, Harrison; Okafor, Piroe, Nmecha.
Subs: Perri, Byram, Justin, Struijk, Longstaff, Stach, Aaronson, Chambers, Calvert-Lewin.
Preamble
As the defender Callum Elder described it this week, Derby v Leeds is “an amazing fixture”. Stuffed full of history and storylines, from the scraps of the 70s to the spy plots of Bielsa and Lampard, it is a game that never lacks a bit of needle. The rivalry renews in the FA Cup this lunchtime as John Eustace’s Championship side take on Daniel Farke’s Premier League team at Pride Park, where Elder expects a “fierce atmosphere”.
Derby haven’t beaten Leeds since those infamous 2019 Championship playoffs and will look to do so today in this midday kick-off. A spot in the fourth round is at stake.
You can get in touch with me with your thoughts on today’s game, or memories of previous meetings, via this email. Team news is coming up shortly.
