West Ham 2-2 Leeds (pens 2-4): FA Cup basic breathes recent life into London Stadium as spirited Hammers undergo penalty shootout agony – however followers are LOCKED OUT after giving up on Nuno Espirito Santo’s group at 2-0 down!
At least the West Ham fans who left early missed the agony. At least they didn’t have to endure Jarrod Bowen and Pablo seeing their penalties saved in a shootout that saw Leeds secure a place in the FA Cup semi-final for the first time in 39 years.
They missed the disappointment but they also missed one of the craziest endings to a Cup tie in living memory, they missed the fight, and they missed the noise. Who said this stadium has no atmosphere? Who said the roof couldn’t come off? Who said it would always be a silent shadow of Upton Park?
The thousands that walked away could only hear the roars from over their shoulders. They will have to tell their friends that they weren’t there, no matter how much they pleaded with stewards to be let back in or, when that didn’t work, attempted to storm the turnstiles.
They will have to say they weren’t there when Mateus Fernandes tapped in after 93 minutes to breathe hope, nor when Axel Disasi took it to extra-time in the 96th, and certainly not when Taty Castellanos thought he’d won it at the start of extra-time and set off around the old race track like he was an Olympic sprinter back in 2012.
Or when Jarrod Bowen rattled the upright from distance and substitute Pablo followed it in only for it for his effort, too, to be ruled out for offside.
They will have to say that they weren’t there to see 20-year-old academy goalkeeper Finlay Herrick, who doesn’t even have a Wikipedia page and played 10 games on loan at Boreham Wood earlier this season, replace the injured Alphonse Areola just before penalties and save the first spot-kick in the shootout.
Leeds booked their place at Wembley after beating West Ham in an FA Cup classic
Lucas Perri was the hero for Leeds in the penalty shootout after a madcap 120 minutes
West Ham youngster Finlay Herrick came off the bench just before the shootout but was unable to prevent his side going out the competition
So much for the FA Cup being an unwanted distraction. So much for it being an inconvenience for two clubs in a relegation battle and an unnecessary opportunity for star players to get injured ahead of a nerve-wracking run-in that will see these two sides face off again in a final-day showdown when Premier League survival could well be on the line instead of a place at Wembley.
‘What I saw was a group of players that didn’t give up,’ said Hammers boss Nuno Espirito Santo. ‘This is the major lesson we have to take. We cannot allow ourselves for one minute to give up what we have in our hands. The mission that we have to do will require belief and character and handling pressure. That’s what I saw today: a group of boys that didn’t give up.’
But for three hours and six minutes, not a soul was thinking about relegation and certainly not for the last breathless half an hour when West Ham pushed and pushed and pushed for a winner against a Leeds side left punch-drunk and bewildered after watching their two-goal lead courtesy of Ao Tanaka and Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s penalty evaporate before their eyes in stoppage time.
To complete the utter carnage, the shootout was taken at the West Ham end after earlier confusion after Daniel Farke had been told on his arrival that Leeds, should the game go to a shootout, wouldn’t be able to take their penalties in front of their own fans due to safety concerns.
In the end, the decision was changed and the two teams did toss to decide who went first and from which end they would shoot, with sources insisting that had Leeds chosen to shoot in front of their own fans, they would have been able to do so.
Chelsea await Leeds at Wembley now for Farke’s men. ‘You can see in the eyes how much it means to them,’ said the Leeds boss. ‘The last semi-final was in the 80s and the last few years haven’t been that easy. We hopefully will earn our right to stay in the Premier League but to be back on this big stage at Wembley and 30,000 will try to take over London.’
Axel Disasi scored in the 96th minute to pull West Ham level and sent the tie to extra-time
Mateus Fernandes had given the Hammers a glimmer of hope and they then scored another
Leeds’ place at Wembley did come at a cost though as Anton Stach, Joe Rodon and Noah Okafor all limped off with injury.
When Leeds fans look back in years to come at the heroes who got them to their first FA Cup semi in 39 years, they will see the names of Tanaka and Calvert-Lewin in the history books alongside Pascal Struijk who slotted home the winning penalty.
Max Kilman’s name should be there, too. It was ahead of West Ham’s defeat at Aston Villa before the international break that Nuno decided he’d rather rip up the three-at-the-back system he’d worked on all week when Jean-Clair Todibo pulled up in the warm-up than play Kilman.
Having had no choice but to do so here without the injured Todibo or Konstantinos Mavropanos, everyone saw why.
The £40million centre back was hugely fortunate not to award Leeds a gift of a second from the spot when he hacked down Stach so clumsily after the German got his shot away yet referee Craig Pawson nor the VAR thought it worthy of a penalty.
He was not to be so lucky the second time around. Sebastiaan Bornauw was the victim this time.
Pawson was sent to the screen and soon declared to the stadium that Kilman had made a ‘careless challenge’ that would result in a penalty. That, if anything, was a generous assessment.
When they showed the replays on the big screens even the West Ham fans couldn’t grumble or complain. They just sat in silence and then booed Kilman the next time he touched the ball. How Leeds would love to see him on the final day.
