Daniel Farke left ‘exhausted’ as Leeds produce superb comeback to beat Norwich

Posted Sunday, October 22, 2023 by PA

Leeds manager Daniel Farke was full of praise for his players as they recovered from a 2-0 half-time deficit to win 3-2 at his former club Norwich.

The visitors moved up to third in the Championship table after producing a storming second-half display to maintain their upward momentum.

Farke admitted Norwich had given him an almighty scare but was delighted his new team found a way to prevail.

He said: “I am exhausted and ready for the sofa after that. It was a great game, a really good advert for the Championship between two good sides.

“Norwich made it very difficult for us, as I knew they would, but in the end I thought it was a deserved win.

“In the first half we created more chances than you would expect but we missed them and Norwich scored twice.

“Normally when you are 2-0 down at half-time you would say there was something wrong but I thought, no, we are playing well. We just need to stay on it and be more clinical and we were.

“It was a brilliant second half for us and a massive three points and all the praise has to go to the players. These sort of wins are the best when it comes to building up confidence and we are all delighted.”

Farke was jubilant at the final whistle but said he kept his celebrations in check out of respect to the home fans.

“It was quite emotional for me coming back to Norwich, which will always be a special place for me,” he said.

“I had four-and-a-half unbelievable years here. So I didn’t think it would be right to dance around and celebrate over the moon, even though I was so happy with my lads.”

Leeds wasted chance after chance in the opening period and were punished as Norwich took two of theirs.

Shane Duffy opened his account for the Canaries by heading home a fourth-minute corner from Gabriel Sara, who doubled their advantage in the 43rd minute when he powered through some weak tackling to blast home.

The visitors got back in it just past the hour mark as Duffy scored at the wrong end, deflecting a Dan James cross into his own net after it had eluded keeper George Long, on for the injured Angus Gunn.

The fortunate break gave Leeds the impetus to go on and win it, with Crysencio Summerville producing well-taken strikes in the 77th and 85th minutes to turn the game on its head.

Norwich head coach David Wagner felt there were positives for his team despite the heartbreaking finish.

“In football you get praised if you win and criticised if you lose but sometimes you have to look beyond the result,” he said.

“I have mixed emotions because although I am obviously disappointed with the result there were many things about our performance that pleased me.

“My job is not to get carried away if we win of it we lose. It is to look at the performance and if we continue to perform at a good level like that we will start winning games again.

“We were up against a very good side and that is why we conceded more chances than we would normally do.

“But we created plenty ourselves and I feel really sorry for the lads because they have put in a real shift out there.

“I saw plenty of good things although I was not happy with the way we defended for the first and third goals and that is something we need to look at.”