Chelsea v Leeds United: FA Cup semi-final – live
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The crate was crammed with bottles but Daniel Farke made light work of hoisting it on to a table and inviting everyone to help themselves. It was a little after 10.30 one night in April last year, an already-promoted Leeds had just beaten Bristol City, and the manager was offering journalists an end-of-season beer.
Such gestures are increasingly unusual in an ever-more corporate and sanitised sport, but Farke brings a human touch to proceedings. Indeed, his refreshingly down-to-earth approach is reminiscent of an illustrious title-winning predecessor. Behind a blunt exterior Howard Wilkinson was a caring manager who, spotting a journalist stranded outside Elland Road late one night, drove him home to Sheffield. It seems the sort of thing Farke might also do.
44 min: This is absolutely outrageous! Gray, back up, hobbles down the left. He doesn’t really want a pass from Giles, but gets one anyway. He goes to hoick the ball up the wing, away from personal danger, but it’s too late: Hutchinson comes sliding in, whipping Gray into the air like a greasy pancake. Recently injured, Gray understandably takes exception to this wild lunge. Less understandably, he responds by stamping on his assailant’s leg. Hutchinson springs up and punches Gray right on the tip of his front tail. Right in the trousers! Those are two sendings off, right there, though the referee does nothing whatsoever and play goes on.
