Leeds United failed to progress through to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Wednesday night as they were beaten 3-2 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
It was a valiant effort from Daniel Farke's side, who led through Mateo Joseph and made it 2-2 before a late winner for the hosts, but one that did not end in a victory for the Championship outfit.
There were plenty of positives to take from the match, including the brace from the academy graduate and the narrow scoreline, but there were also some negatives.
Junior Firpo was questionable defensively throughout the match, particularly for the third Chelsea goal. However, Joel Piroe was even worse than the left-back with a sloppy performance in attack.
Junior Firpo's defensive errors against Chelsea
The former Barcelona defender was slightly culpable for the equaliser from Nicolas Jackson to make it 1-1 as he left Liam Cooper, who does not have the pace to deal with the Senegal international, with a one-on-one foot race with the striker, who then slotted through Illan Meslier.
Firpo then allowed Raheem Sterling, who was also not picked up by Jaidon Anthony, to run off the back of him and slide the ball along the ball for Mykhaylo Mudryk to make it 2-1 before half time.
Leeds worked their way back into the game through Joseph's close-range header but the Whites left-back was caught out once again for Chelsea's winner.
He attempted to step in to intercept Enzo Fernandez's pass into Conor Gallagher but completely missed the ball and the player, which allowed the England international to spin and fire past Meslier.
The statistics that show Piroe was worse than Firpo
Whilst Firpo was at fault for Chelsea's winner, Piroe was even worse than the 27-year-old defender as he produced a poor performance at the top end of the pitch.
The Dutch marksman had fewer touches (39) than goalkeeper Illan Meslier (57) as he failed to impose himself on the match. Blues defenders found it far too easy to get the better of him as the ex-Swansea star lost six of his nine duels in total.
Sofascore rating
6.7
6.4
Touches
72
39
Key passes
One
One
Duels won
Four
Three
Pass accuracy
85%
76%
Possession lost
11x
13x
As you can see in the table above, Firpo had far more touches of the ball yet Piroe lost possession more times for Leeds, which illustrates how sloppy he was on the ball.
The 24-year-old striker, who was outshined by Joseph in front of goal, created as many chances as the left-back (one) and did not trouble Robert Sanchez in the Chelsea goal with any shots on target.
Firpo was, at least, reliable in possession and made four tackles and two interceptions for his side to prevent the hosts from creating more opportunities to test Meslier.
He was less than perfect on all three of the Chelsea goals but it was not a completely poor all-round performance from the full-back.
Leeds must rue selling their homegrown talent who's now better than Firpo
This howler will still sting from a Leeds United perspective.
ByKelan SarsonFeb 15, 2024
Whereas, as shown by the aforementioned statistics, Piroe was sloppy in his work off the ball, in the build-up, and in the final third, which is why he was worse than the left-back.
