Pressure claims emerges from Norwich City camp amid Leeds United pre-play-off slump | OneFootball

Jack Stacey believes that Leeds United should be the ones with the pressure on them as they get set to face Norwich City at Carrow Road on Sunday in the first-leg of their play-off semi-final.

Now that all 24 teams have played all 46 games of the Championship season, the fates of almost every team have been decided, apart from the four who have made the play-offs.

Two Premier League teams of a season ago - Leeds and Southampton FC - filled the top two of the post-season spots, respectively, missing out on the chance to return to the top flight automatically by finishing behind Leicester City and Ipswich Town.

The two teams that the Whites and the Saints will be facing are Norwich and West Bromwich Albion, respectively.

Three of the four - Southampton, West Brom and Norwich - had known their eventual fate for much longer than Leeds, or at least it felt that way.

They had the chance to really pile the pressure on the top two, with all three stumbling at some point in the run-in. But, while Leicester and Ipswich found their feet, Leeds fell flat on their faces, picking up only six points from their final five games.

Their expectations all season long was to finish in the top two, and, at a minimum, win promotion through the play-offs. Stacey believes that the opportunity that their opposition has missed should put the pressure on them.

Jack Stacey makes Leeds pressure claim

The league standings show a 17-point gap between the Whites and the Canaries. The full-back said that this should make him and his teammates play more freely, while the opposition should be feeling the pressure because they didn't meet their targets.

"If you look at the tie, we finished sixth and Leeds have been going for automatic promotion for a long time, so the balance of pressure is mostly towards them," said the full-back, via PinkUn.

"It doesn't mean that we're not going to give everything to get there, but in terms of pressure, I think it's skewed towards them and we can relish that.

"Obviously they're going to be disappointed, because they had a chance to go up automatically and now they're looking into the play-offs.

"For us, play-offs was the aim we had for a long time and we've achieved that. They're a very, very good team, we're taking nothing for granted, but it's something we're going to relish."

While the points gap suggests that there will be more pressure on Daniel Farke's side to win, it also suggests a quality difference.

Leeds were the first ever team to reach 90 points or more and not win automatic promotion. The league's Player of the Season, Crysencio Summerville, will be matched up with Stacey across both legs.

This is something he plans on embracing. He said: "A lot of their quality is individual, which is very hard to deal with in terms of setting up strategically, but that's a battle on the day.

"They have a set way of playing, and our job for the week before the first leg is to analyse them like we would any team. We'll set up to face them in what we think is the best way possible.

"We know where they're strong, and our aim is to exploit areas that we think we can.

Leeds have to get a good result in the first leg

All of the top four have had runs where they have looked utterly unstoppable. Right now, the Whites are going through the opposite of that. They look like a side that is very beatable, and can be pushed over; their recent form can suggest nothing else.

They travel to Carrow Road for the first leg, and, if they come away from it with a sour taste in their mouth, it may be hard for them to overcome it at Elland Road.

Being at home for the second leg is a big advantage. In those do-or-die games, you want to have the majority of the crowd in your favour.

But Elland Road has been known to swallow the home side up when things get nervy - the 2019 play-offs being a prime example of that.