Frank Lampard tells Derby to rise to play-off pressure and sink Leeds
Frank Lampard has said Derby County must embrace the occasion in front of a capacity crowd at Elland Road on Wednesday night if his side are to reach the Championship play-off final at Leeds’ expense. Derby have lost to Marcelo Bielsa’s team three times this season and trail by a goal going into their fourth meeting in the semi-final second leg.
“It will be a tough match, with a big atmosphere,” Lampard said. “We have young players and they have to accept the pressure that Elland Road will bring. If we approach the game as we did the run-in, then we have a chance. We have to be more composed. We have to believe until the very last minute. We must be driven, determined and professional; we have to give everything.
“It’s a strong atmosphere, it’s a stadium of history. It will be tough but the players need to rise to that. There’s pressure for us but there’s also pressure for them. We just have to worry about ourselves. We don’t have to go crazy. We’ve come back well from losing situations in games this season. This will be our biggest test yet on that front. We all know the intensity of this game. It’s big and that ramped up in January for obvious reasons.”
Lampard said Leeds did not apologise over “Spygate”, when a member of Bielsa’s staff was sent to watch a Derby training session from a nearby field at the turn of the year. Leeds were fined £200,000 for breaching a nebulous “good faith” rule in the EFL’s code of conduct, a fine that Bielsa paid himself, and the governing body is set to bring in a specific regulation banning the practice. Bielsa’s side have won only two of their past five matches at their stadium and the Derby midfielder Bradley Johnson, who spent three years at Leeds, knows the importance of trying to silence a vociferous home support.
“If we go there on the front foot and put our stamp on the game, then the fans might turn and that’s something we would hope to do,” Johnson said. “I have been there in full houses and they do get behind the team. We have got to go there and take the emotion out of the game and not let the fans dictate the way we play and just play our game. They are a good footballing side. We have got to go there and out-battle them and outplay them and hopefully
get the win.”
Patrick Bamford, available after serving a retrospective two-match ban for simulation, is expected to lead the line in the absence of Kemar Roofe, who picked up a calf injury after scoring in the first leg on Saturday.
Derby could welcome back the former England defender Ashley Cole following a groin problem but Martyn Waghorn remains a doubt with an achilles problem. “He [Waghorn] broke down on Friday,” Lampard said. “But he is desperate to be involved. He will be assessed up until the last moment.”