Marcelo Bielsa: ‘There are no favourites in the play-offs’ - says Leeds United boss

The promotion deciders with the biggest prize in world football at stake get under way today featuring a quartet of famous old names boasting 13 League titles between them.

Aston Villa, European Cup winners in 1982, host West Bromwich Albion this lunchtime as the bookmakers’ favourites to join Norwich City and Sheffield in winning promotion after a stirring finish to the regular Championship season.

But Derby County are also strongly fancied ahead of facing Leeds United at Pride Park in an equally intriguing semi-final first leg.

Bielsa, however, is adamant that trying to predict a winner in a two-legged tie as keenly contested as the play-offs is nigh on impossible.

“Before a game we always say there is a favourite team,” said the Argentinian, who will be looking to claim a lead to bring back to Elland Road for Wednesday’s return leg.

“You have many facts and many examples that shows that the conclusion drawn before a game regarding who is the favourite are either confirmed or exactly the opposite.

“If you take the predictions and you compare it to the result you will find maybe 50 per cent of the predictions that are right and 50 that are wrong.

“But as we have the luck to be able to play two games there is no point in making any predictions about it.

“We don’t feel as winners before playing the game and we don’t feel as losers before playing the game.

“What we value is the possibility to show what we deserve, the rest are just words.”

A sell-out crowd at Derby means the stage is set for the latest instalment of a rivalry that can be traced back to the days in the early Seventies when the two clubs vied for superiority at the top of English football.

The ‘Spygate’ furore that blew up in January cannot compete with the deep-seated feelings of distrust that developed between then managers Don Revie and Brian Clough.

But there will nevertheless be an edge to proceedings this tea-time as old wounds are reopened despite the best efforts of Bielsa and Frank Lampard to move on from a saga that ended with Leeds being fined £200,000 by the 
EFL.

For his part the United head coach has this week been fulsome in his praise for the one-time England international’s first stab at management with the Pride Park club.

“The results of Derby County and the style of play speak about Frank Lampard,” added the Argentinian.

“He has good players, he put them in the same team and he made this team play well.”

If Leeds are to prevail over two legs and reach the May 27 final at Wembley there has to be a big improvement on the poor displays of recent weeks, which yielded just one point from four matches.

“This event,” added Bielsa, “it is a football episode that everyone wants to live.

“You have two prizes at the end.

“Both semi-final games are going to be very attractive and the winner will play a final at Wembley.

“It will be a spectacle. Then the team that wins at Wembley will go up, will get promoted. You cannot have a bigger goal than this.

“The motivation to face these challenges comes by itself and the preparation is the second aspect.”

Doncaster Rovers are the other Yorkshire team in play-off action as they look to join Barnsley in winning promotion from League One. Grant McCann’s Rovers host Charlton Athletic in the first leg of their semi-final tomorrow lunchtime.

Play-off previews: Pages 2-3