Daniel Farke praises Leeds United for pulling together to set up Wembley trip

Leeds made history on Thursday by winning their first Elland Road game under the current format of the play-offs.

Their only previous home win in the competition came in 1986-87, when the play-offs included teams from the division above – in this case First Division Charlton Athletic.

But they beat Norwich City 4-0 to reach the play-off final after a 0-0 draw in the Carrow Road leg.

The atmosphere at Elland Road was parituclarly impressive, with the club handing out free scarves to home supporters before kick off, and fans banishing the nerves that would have been understandable given their team's record.

"This place is really second to none, how much this place was rocking," said manager Farke.

"Once it comes down to the wire this club is united like no one else. It was unbelievable, the atmosphere."

The Whites finished the season poorly, losing their last two home games and dropping out of the automatic promotion places.

But they rediscovered the defensive poise that had eluded the since the return from the international break and added the cutting edge that had gone missing with it.

Georginio Rutter scored his first goal since hernia surgery in March to put his side 3-0 up before half-time, and from there the winner was in no doubt.

"The run-in was not the best because of many injuries, we weren't in our best shape and results were not the best in the last two games but to go there with this positivity and unity into the game was second to none," said Farke.

"I'm pretty grateful for this experience.

"Sometimes it can be dangerous because it's not that easy to not play every ball forward and you have to make sure you still keep your cool and you're not there with over-riding emotions when this place is rocking.

"I also got the feeling in the first half sometimes we started our attacks a bit too early instead of preparing them a bit more.

"This young side, when they hear this crowd sometimes they are over-emotional and want to play every time the perfect pass. We had to make sure in these terms we calmed them down a bit at half-time.

"But this place is a great help and I only have compliments for our supporters. This is why we all grew up and wanted to be a footballer, for nights like this, to have a place rocking like this.

"In football you can't guarantee success, you can be the better side and hit the crossbar 10 times then the opponents score a deflected strike in their one time in your half.

"But Thursday was a nearly perfect night for us and to celebrate with our supporter, this is why we all wanted to play football and it was a really special night so I want to say thank you to our supporters for this great experience."

Farke called Leeds’ performance one of the best of their campaign, saying: "It was one of our most complete performances of the whole season, dominant in possession and so creative to create so many clear-cut chances.

"We scored four goals and we should have scored many more if I'm really honest.

"We were in total control apart from one moment from Josh Sargent in the first half (when Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier saved a one-on-one chance at 2-0)."

David Wagner paid the price for the Canaries’ poor second-leg display, with the former Huddersfield Town coach sacked on Friday morning.

"Everybody has seen the difference between Leeds United and us,” he admitted.

"More or less everything you should not do, we have done.

"It's a very disappointing evening and end of season but against Leeds away we knew we had to stay in the game and we've done more or less exactly the opposite."

Wagner had been in the job since January 2023.