Corberan will not dream of Wembley - yet

CARLOS Corberan insists the tantalising prospect of leading his side out at Wembley is not on his – or his players’ – minds whatsoever while a tough two-legged semi-final against Luton Town still stands in their way.

Huddersfield Town will visit Kenilworth Road for the first leg tonight (7.45pm) before hosting the second leg on Monday evening, with the right to face either Nottingham Forest or Sheffield United in the capital on the line.

Terriers head coach Corberan knows better than most that nothing can be taken for granted in the play-offs having been assistant manager at Leeds United in 2018/19, when they spent much of the season pushing for automatic promotion only to finish third and then lose to sixth-placed Derby

County in the semi-finals. As such, the Spaniard is keen to ensure nobody at Huddersfield is getting ahead of themselves.

“There’s no chance [of us doing that],” he said. “That’s something that’s not in our minds.

“We know we’re going to play against a very strong and competitive Luton team for 180 minutes and we need to know that to make this dream happen we need to perform at our best level in two games of 90 minutes.

“So in our minds there is no type of possibility to be thinking more about the future than to be thinking in the present - not just because we say this but because it’s true.

“If you analyse the four teams in the play-offs - Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United and Luton - the only team we did not beat playing away was Luton. That’s one key example.

“If you analyse the results of Luton playing the top five teams ahead of them in the Championship, none of them have beaten them when they’ve been playing at home.

“So I know how difficult the game is and the players know exactly the same. If we want to have any possibility of being at Wembley, we need to perform in the next game at our best level.”

Not only is Corberan not thinking as far ahead as a potential final, his focus is squarely on the first leg, rather than what might lie in store in Monday’s second game at the John Smith’s Stadium.

As he explained: “I need to analyse game by game because the only one we can face now is Friday’s one. The context of the game is going to be specific.

“We can imagine how the game is going to develop because we’ve played them at home [recently] and they are a team with a very clear style - a style that has helped them be in the position they have finished the season in.

“It’s clear that the game is going to be very tough, very demanding, very, very strong, with many challenges on the pitch and many competitive situations. That’s exactly what I expect.

“I think Luton know us better and

We need to know that to make this dream happen we need to perform to our best level in two games