15 May 2022

Carlos Corberan happy to have home advantage for winner-takes-all Luton clash

15 May 2022

Huddersfield boss Carlos Corberan insists he does not have to tell his players what is at stake as they prepare for a do-or-die battle with Luton to preserve their Premier League dream.

The Terriers returned from Friday night’s Sky Bet Championship semi-final first leg with the Hatters at Kenilworth Road all square at 1-1.

But as he and his players attempted to negotiate the quick turnaround between games, Corberan was adamant no-one within the camp needed reminding of the prize which is up for grabs.

He told the club’s official website: “They know. They know we have 90 minutes where we need to beat Luton to continue in the play-offs.

“(On Friday) it was important that if we couldn’t win, we didn’t lose and go into the home leg with the possibility that if we win the game, we’ll progress.”

Daniel Sinani gave the visitors a 12th-minute lead in the first leg, but Sonny Bradley levelled before the break to ensure there is nothing between the sides going into the return in West Yorkshire.

Corberan is well aware of how important home advantage could be, but is expecting an equally tight encounter at the John Smith’s Stadium.

He said: “It was a demanding game, but we were expecting that. If you play a play-off and you don’t expect a demanding game, you are totally wrong.

“Now we are going to have another demanding game at home where the pitch is a little bit bigger and we have our own fans.

“But I expect the demands and the challenges to produce another equal and balanced game.”

Corberan will hope to have on-loan Chelsea defender Levi Colwill back at his disposal after he was limited to the role of unused substitute at Luton following an illness which caused him to miss training during the early part of last week.

He lost Ollie Turton to injury at half-time in the game – Spaniard Pipa took his place – but is yet to rule him out of the second leg.

Corberan said: “It’s too early to know about Turton. Let’s see what the injury is and how many days he needs to recover.

“Levi Colwill is fine, but he couldn’t make the full week of training because he felt unwell at the start of the week.”

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