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Punishment for Leeds United trio and Josuha Guilavogui's apology in moments missed

Mihailo Ivanovic of Millwall controls the ball whilst under pressure from Isaac Schmidt and Josuha Guilavogui
-Credit:George Wood/Getty Images


Leeds United were dumped out of the FA Cup by Millwall at Elland Road on Saturday evening in a match that will not live long in the memory.

The Whites fell to a 2-0 loss thanks to two goals from Femi Azeez, the first one which took a huge deflection off of Josuha Guilavogui to deceive cup ‘keeper Karl Darlow. The second saw a low drive find the net 10 minutes after half-time.

Pascal Struijk later saw a penalty saved to sum up the afternoon for the hosts. Second half substitutes ramped up the energy for the home side but no end product was found. In the midst of it all, here are three things supporters may have missed.

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Encouraging Chambers

Farke was seen communicating with full debutant Sam Chambers throughout the first half with the 17-year-old chosen to play on the right. He was seen weaving in and out of the channels and was generally positive in his play.

At one point, in the 28th-minute, Farke clapped Chambers to keep going and encouraged him to keep his high line. Juts seconds later, the youngster took the ball and beat his man to cross into the box.

The ball did not come to anything but it was typical of his attacking intent all game. “It was a big day for him and a solid performance. We have a promising young man,” said Farke after full-time. Many would concur.

Ear-flicking fun

As always, the substitutes gather together to take part in their own drills ahead of the match, which is usually conducted at a more amble pace than those due to start. At one point the eight outfield players were playing a game of keep-up between them.

If a good streak got going and the ball got dropped, whoever was at fault was given a punishment - some sharp earflicks amid the cold conditions. Jayden Bogle was subjected to the treatment first before Ilia Gruev and Junior Firpo got their share too.

Team spirit within camp looks to be on a good level, and unsurprisingly so given the form of the team in the league. The bench was stacked with talent too - Brenden Aaronson, Joel Piroe and Manor Soolmon, to name just three of the players.

Guilavogui apology

On another day, Guilavogui might not have lasted past half-time. His crunching and late challenge on Casper De Norre only warranted a yellow card from referee Gavin Ward, despite the midfielder catching De Norre’s ankle.

There was no intention in the tackle, it was just mistimed. But the Frenchman can still count himself lucky. Clearly remorseful, Guilavogui apologised to his counterpart and also to teammate Japhet Tanganga.

Farke afterwards said he hadn’t seen the tackle but “if we were lucky, we were lucky”. He underlined: “He's the kindest person on this planet. So he didn't injure this player on purpose. If he was a bit late, it was probably the right decision to give him a yellow card.”