Wagner: Pressure is now on Wednesday
David Wagner’s revolution at Huddersfield Town is an admirable one but fellow Yorkshire club Sheffield Wednesday continue to be a bogey team. Huddersfield dominated possession in this play-off semi-final first leg, with Isaiah Brown striking the bar, yet their winless run against these opponents is now eight matches, meaning that they face a challenging test at Hillsborough in the return match on Wednesday night.
Huddersfield have now not scored in four successive matches against Wednesday, last season’s losing play-off finalists, so Carlos Carvalhal’s side will take heart from this result. Wednesday took the sting out of the contest, meaning that it was not always the most pulsating occasion for the illustrious Yorkshire-born fans on show, ranging from actor Sir Patrick Stewart to politician David Blunkett.
Wagner, though, cut a relaxed figure afterwards, beginning the mind games ahead of the second leg. He suggested that Wednesday might not get away with sitting back so much in the pressured atmosphere of Hillsborough.
“I have no idea what they will do and I don’t worry about that,” said the Huddersfield manager, who was once on Jürgen Klopp’s coaching staff at Borussia Dortmund. “If they play deep, like they did today, I’m not sure how their supporters will react.
“We will be active, not passive, like we were over the whole season. I’m not sure, with the pressure at Hillsborough, if this result is a disadvantage for us. This could be an advantage for us.”
Wagner added: “I wish we had got a victory because, if there was one team who deserved it, it was my team – but we couldn’t take one of those two or three chances that we had.
“The result is absolutely OK because it’s game on. Everything is prepared for another cracker at Sheffield Wednesday.”
Carvalhal defended his pragmatic approach. “All teams in this kind of situation, going to play away in a semi-final,” he said, “they want to make sure they are in the second game. Football is not just about attack. It’s also the work you do in defence.
“We came here to make sure the second game was alive. We did that and now we play at home and it’ll be a final. I believe that, on Wednesday, the fans can make us play with more tempo. I think this is a positive result.”
Huddersfield set the tone for the match in the early stages, showing more ambition and enjoying the bulk of possession, with Nahki Wells looking bright, while Wednesday were more subdued. Wagner’s side almost broke through midway through the first half after a lapse by Glenn Loovens as Wells flicked the ball on for Brown, whose eight-yard shot clipped the top of the bar on its way over, but that was a rare first-half opening.
The home side remained on the front foot in the early stages of the second half and came close again from Wells’s 25-yard lob, which was tipped over by a back-pedalling Keiren Westwood.
Carvalhal brought on the former Huddersfield striker Jordan Rhodes, but Wagner’s team kept threatening, with Wells having an eight-yard strike blocked by Westwood.
Huddersfield Town
(4-2-3-1) Coleman; Smith, Löwe (Holmes-dennis 90), Hefele, Schindler; Mooy, Hogg; Van La Parra, Brown, Kachunga (Quaner 78) Wells (Cranie 90). Subs Coddington, Whitehead, Hudson, Payne. Booked Smith. Sheffield Wednesday (4-4-2) Westwood; Hunt, Loovens, Lees, Pudil; Wallace (Jones 62), Lee, Bannan, Reach; Fletcher (Rhodes 68), Forestieri (Winnall 73).
Subs Wildsmith, Palmer, Sasso, Nuhui. Booked Wallace, Hunt, Jones.