Leeds United captain Liam Cooper - leading by example, keeping focus and an Elland Road rallying call as Derby County await

Motivation will be everywhere at Elland Road, from the fizz of the crowd to the lure of Wembley and the ghost Leeds have been fighting since Cooper was in his teens.

With all of that around him, he is trying hard not to think too much; not to let his mind stray to Wembley or consider what it would mean to him to be wearing the armband on the day when Leeds’ EFL internment finally ends.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves,” Cooper said, “so I’ll answer that question in a few weeks. But if you need any geeing up for this game then you’re not up for it already.”

Leeds are halfway towards the national stadium and further again if their superiority over Derby in three games this season is a portent of what Elland Road will see tonight.

Marcelo Bielsa has had the measure of Frank Lampard’s squad and Lampard looked lost again during Saturday’s play-off semi-final first leg at Pride Park, so much so that United’s 1-0 advantage might be stronger than it looks on paper.

Bielsa’s team are as short as 9-1 on to progress this evening.

All the same, Kemar Roofe – scorer of the only goal on Saturday – is out with a calf strain and Cooper did not feel the same level of dominance at Pride Park which Leeds exerted in the two regular league matches between the clubs.

Both he and Bielsa take the view that Derby have improved and improved enough to leave the semi-final on a very fine edge.

“I’d definitely say that,” Cooper said.

“You could tell that from the game on Saturday. That might have been down to the magnitude of the game, I don’t know, but it was certainly closer.

“Derby have a lot of players who can hurt you and we nullified them to zero shots on target but that’s gone now. All focus is on Wednesday and we’ll look to beat them again.”

There was enough in the first leg, and enough control on Leeds’ part, for Bielsa to come away with a wider advantage than he has but his camp has a contented air about it, a feeling of quiet satisfaction at the way they manipulated Derby on their turf.

Should the scoreline have been more comfortable in the end?

“There’s always that but the keeper’s made a couple of good saves and we’ve had to defend well to keep them out,” Cooper said.

“On the whole, we were deserving of the victory but I’ll keep saying it: you put that behind you now. We’ve got a massive game, the prize is there and we can all see it but we’ve got 90 minutes of football, maybe more, to get through.

"It’s so easy to get up for these games. These are the easy ones for all footballers.