{"id":299741,"date":"2026-02-15T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299741\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T18:45:10","slug":"perri-makes-key-save-as-leeds-sink-birmingham-in-fa-cup-shootout-fa-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/299741\/","title":{"rendered":"Perri makes key save as Leeds sink Birmingham in FA Cup shootout | FA Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leeds advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup<\/a>, with sights set on a possible first quarter-final place since 2002\u201103. But after scoring a last\u2011gasp equaliser to take the tie to extra time and then a penalty shootout, Birmingham could draw some consolation from pushing their top-flight opponents.<\/p>\n

Sean Longstaff converted the clinching penalty, after Patrick Roberts, who had scored in the 89th minute to gain parity for Birmingham, blasted his kick over the crossbar; the Leeds goalkeeper Lucas Perri also saved from Tommy Doyle, Birmingham\u2019s best player.<\/p>\n

The home side\u2019s status, two points outside the Championship playoff zone, means this result would not have counted as an embarrassment. Leeds are consolidating back in the Premier League and have now lost only once in seven games \u2013 and that against Arsenal<\/a> \u2013 and here they showed the character to recover from a shoddy first half to make it through to the next round.<\/p>\n

There was a sense that Birmingham needed to score while Leeds were so poor. Facundo Buonanotte, on his full debut for the visiting side after joining on loan from Brighton, typified their ineffectiveness and was withdrawn at half-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo question Birmingham were the better side in the first half,\u201d the Leeds manager, Daniel Farke, said. \u201cWe had rotated more players than we would normally do and had a lot of offensive players on the field, so if you don\u2019t dominate the ball, you can get outmuscled. We changed it for the second half and [Ethan] Ampadu gave us more physicality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jay Stansfield, Birmingham\u2019s top scorer, had produced a superb left\u2011footed half\u2011volley that would have nestled in the top corner if Perri had not tipped the ball on to the post early on. Ibrahim Osman also shot against the inside of a post, Kanya Fujimoto unable to convert the rebound, with the last action of regulation time.<\/p>\n

Both teams had made six changes to their starting lineups from Tuesday night league action but, even after Leeds led through Lukas Nmecha, this felt like a special day for Birmingham. They wore a bespoke kit for the day, replicating the blue with a white central stripe first worn by the team of the former England striker Bob Latchford in 1971-72, and the crowd were impassioned throughout.<\/p>\n

Birmingham\u2019s players, in their retro shirts, react to their shootout defeat. Photograph: Michael Regan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Leeds had to weather a storm, on and off the pitch. Birmingham, bolstered by six signings in the January window, have strength in depth and, in St Andrew\u2019s, the archetypal fortress. They have lost only once in 40 league games here.<\/p>\n

The regular Leeds captain, Ethan Ampadu, came on for the second half and changed the complexion of the game; the Premier League side adapted their mentality as well as their shape. Within four minutes they were ahead.<\/p>\n

There was a question over offside when Noah Okafor played the ball on for Nmecha but, in the absence of a video assistant referee until the next round of this competition, the striker was able to capitalise on Christoph Klarer\u2019s slip and strike his seventh goal of the season inside the near post.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideFulham advance past StokeShow<\/p>\n

Harrison Reed’s opportunistic finish carried Fulham into the fifth round of the FA Cup as they came from behind to defeat the Championship strugglers Stoke 2-1 at the bet365 Stadium.<\/p>\n

Stoke have not won a game since seeing off Coventry in the previous round, but started well against a Fulham side showing 10 changes from their midweek defeat by Manchester City.<\/p>\n

The South Korean midfielder Bae Jun-ho capped a fine move by putting Mark Robins’s team ahead after 19 minutes but they were overpowered as their Premier League opponents settled after the interval.<\/p>\n

The Brazilian winger Kevin got his reward for a livewire performance in the 55th minute, sending a first-time effort into the bottom corner after cutting in from the left, and a self-inflicted error cost the hosts dear with six minutes remaining.<\/p>\n

Under siege for long periods, goalkeeper Tommy Simkin attempted a short pass to Tatsuki Seko, who was caught daydreaming by Reed, Fulham’s captain for the day. He collected the ball as Seko tumbled to the turf, finished calmly and sealed the London club’s place in the next stage.<\/p>\n

PA Media<\/p>\n

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Birmingham did not lose belief, though Leeds were a different proposition now. With Dominic Calvert-Lewin and, especially, Brenden Aaronson coming on to add to their counterattacking threat, the chances of a Cup upset appeared to be receding \u2013 especially with Osman, on as a substitute, spurning a series of presentable chances from the left.<\/p>\n

With a minute of regulation time remaining, a corner was recycled to Roberts who let fly, left-footed, from 25 yards. The ball snicked off James Justin and past Perri to take the tie into extra time and penalties.<\/p>\n

Farke conceded that this was \u201cfar from champagne football\u201d but he was proud that his Leeds side \u201cshowed again resilience\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chris Davies, the Birmingham manager, expressed pride in his team but struck a note of disappointment at the result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud of [my players],\u201d Davies said. \u201cOf course there\u2019s a tinge of frustration because I thought we were deserved winners. We had all the grit, effort and determination but the quality to match.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup, with sights set on a possible first quarter-final…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-299741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}