55 min “Djorkaeff is a SENSATIONAL shout-out!” SAYS Robert Wilson. “Never got anything near the merited amounts of love (particularly from the French). From memory, he got 25 or so international goals and yet never really played as an out and out striker. He had so much time. His ball control was like Ricky Ponting’s pull shot, you felt like he was making tea or learning another language while doing it. A proper delight.”

I used to think his goal v Spain at Euro 96 was exhibit A for his unobtrusive class, but I’ve watched it so many times that I now think he may have miscontrolled it ever so slightly and got lucky when it hit his standing foot. Doesn’t chance the class of the finish, mind.

54 min Adingra is tripped just outside the area by Bogle. The referee doesn’t give it and VAR can’t get involved because it wasn’t inside in the 18-yard thingy.

52 min Apparently every Leeds outfield player touched the ball in the move for Calvert-Lewin’s goal. Sheer delightful footbll.

51 min “Rob my dear chap,” begins Kimberley Thonger. “Against the spirit of Christmas perhaps but I have to tell you you’re just plain wrong to say (I’m paraphrasing)… ‘Hard to see a FA Cup winner from outside the top division ever happening again’

“I feel so strongly that you are off target I will put a shiny freshly minted 50 pence piece on a straight bet. Weston-super-Mare will win the FA Cup in 2026. It’s their destiny. All the famous names from WSM’s past were merely leading up to this.”

49 min Calvert-Lewin has now scored in six sucecessive league games, two short of the club record.

It was a wonderful 12-pass move from Leeds, starting just outside their own area on the left. They worked their way skilfully through the press, then Stach swept a long pass out to Aaronson on the right. He ran at the backpedalling defender and fizzed a low cross to the near post, where Calvert-Lewin got in front of Mukiele and slipped the ball past Roes from six yards. Fabulous goal.

47 min I didn’t realise that Leeds switched to a back four after the injury to Rodon – Michael Bridges has just pointed it out on Sky. This is their revised line-up.

Leeds (4-1-4-1) Perri; Bogle, Bijol, Struijk, Gudmundsson; Ampadu; Aaronson, Tanaka, Stack, Okafor; Calvert-Lewin.

46 min Leeds get the second half under way. Hang on, didn’t they kick off the first as well?

Half-time reading

45+1 min “Farke Up” is the subject of Justin Kavanagh’s email.

For all his great work and flexibility of recent weeks, Daniel Farke must take some of the blame for not taking the hobbled Rodon off 15 minutes earlier. He’s not only put the defender’s long-term fitness at risk, but Rodon was obviously struggling to cover the right-hand side where the goal was scored from.

I wondered about that but it came from a long throw so I’m not sure the usual positioning rules apply. As for the earlier injury, he seemed to have run it off, though you don’t always pick these things up when you’re MBMing. I guess we don’t know for sure whether they were related.

45 min Five minutes of added time, mainly because of the treatment to Joe Rodon.

44 min Excellent spell this for Leeds. Bogle pushes a shorrt pass into the area for Aaronson, who wiggles his hips to create a yard and sidefoots a low cross that just evades the sliding Okafor in front of goal.

42 min “Echo the sentiment about Michael Bridges and great to hear he’s making a good co-commentator too,” writes John Davis. “It’s a real shame that his career was ruined by injury, but without them there is no way he would have spent a glorious but brief spell at Carlisle - still far and away the best player I’ve ever seen at Brunton Park.

“He was so good, in fact, that my favourite memory of him is hitting a first-time volley from the edge of the area so far off target that it hit the club badge above the Warwick Road End. It was so out of character at that point that even Bridges was laughing about it. Just a lovely player to watch.”

I love creative players who do everything with an unobtrusive class and an unshowy economy. Bridges always seemed to play like that (comedy volleys notwithstanding). Youri Djorkaeff is another example.

36 min Leeds have had more of the ball, around 60 per cent, and will feel a bit unfortunate to be 1-0 down. Against that, they haven’t really tested Robin Roefs, so I’m staying on the fence alongside Sir Trevor.

34 min A corner from the right is headed towards goal by the backpedalling Bijol and held comfortably by Roefs. Even Mick Harford would have struggled to score from there.

33 min Gudmundsson makes a good run down the left and clips a promising early cross towards Calvert-Lewin on the six-yard line. He’s on his heels and a Sunderland defender, possibly Alderete, gets in front to clear.

32 min Granit Xhaka is probably the only man on the pitch who could have seen that pass and weighted it so perfectly. If you were naming a Premier League team of the season at the halfway stage, he’d be a shoo-in.

31 min: Leeds substitution Poor Joe Rodon hobbles off to be replaced by Ao Tanaka. That means Ethan Ampadu will move into the back three.

29 min There was a check for offside but the goal stands. Play has yet to resume because Rodon is receiving more treatment.

It’s Adingra’s first goal for Sunderland and a lovely finish. A long throw was half cleared to Xhaka, who threaded a classy pass through to Adingra. He took a touch, opened his body and swept a majestic, Thierry Henry-style finish into the far corner.

27 min “Greetings of the season and all that!” says Joe Pearson. “And sorry to all the Leeds fans, but I remain unconvinced by DCL. Sure he’s on a good run of form, but his career (with the exception of two fine seasons with Everton) is a litany of injuries and general ineffectiveness. You hope for the best for him, but history is not on his side.”

Fair points, but with a 128-man squad England can afford to take the gamble.

26 min Rodon is going to continue for now but he’s limping very heavily.

25 min VAR cleared Adingra’s challenge fairly quickly. He was a bit lucky to escape a yellow card but it wasn’t severe enough for a VAR intervention.

23 min Poor Joe Rodon is in the wars. He was caught earlier by Brobbey and now Simon Adingra has taken him out with a late challenge. It looked clumsy rather than malicious but Rodon is in a lot of pain.

20 min Perri is quickly off his line to beat Brobbey to a through ball. Good goalkeeping because Brobbey had forced his way between two defenders.

19 min “The great thing about FA Cup finals in the 1970s,” says Andrew Goudie, “was that there were three winners from outside the top division (Sunderland, Southampton and West Ham). There hasn’t been one since.”

I think West Ham are a top-flight side when they won it in 1975. Though not in 1980s, so your point stands. Hard to see it ever happening again.

16 min The ball rolls invitingly towards Geertruida 25 yards from goal. It’s crying out for a first-time shot but he instead tries a disguised pass into the area and get it wrong.

14 min A long free-kick from the left leads to a game of head tennis in the Sunderland area. Eventually Struijk touches the ball off to Okafor, whose close-range shot deflects over off Mukiele. That’s a vital block.

13 min So far Leeds have been the more relaxed team in possession. Early days I know but this 3-3-2-2 system suits them so well.

10 min A crisp one-touch move from Leeds ends with Stach shooting straight at the keeper from 20 yards. That’s their first shot on target.

9 min Rodon is limping heavily after a late challenge from Brobbey, who accidentally stood on his foot. Leeds will hope it’s something he can off rather than, say, a broken metatarsal.

8 min Bridges has already made three or four interesting observations about the tactical detail of the game. This is what a co-commentator should do.

7 min It’s been a frantic start, plenty of challenges going in. Leeds are having a fair amount of the ball, as they did in their previous away game at Brentford.

6 min “Thank you Justin Kavanagh,” sarcasms Richard Hirst. “I was enjoying my day after three away wins in a row for Fulham until you reminded me of the 1975 FA Cup Final. Although, in truth, there was not much pain in losing: I was just so overwhelmed to see my team walk out at Wembley, something I never dreamed would happen (and, yes, there may have been tears), that losing was a minor matter.”

5 min Leeds break promisingly until Okafor is tripped by Hume, who is a bit fortunate to escape a yellow card.

4 min Nice to hear Michael Bridges, who played for both these clubs and is a bit of a forgotten lost talent, doing co-commentary on Sky Sports. He was sensational in his first season at Leeds until injuries started to ruined his career.

2 min A long throw from Mukiele – drink! – leads to a shot from Adingra that is deflected behind for the first corner. Le Fee swings it in and Struijk (I think) heads clear.

1 min Leeds, in their blue change strip, kick off from left to right as we watch.

There’s a minute’s silence for Patrick Treuer, a non-executive director of the club who has died aged just 52.

“Not sure there’ll be any fighting on the pitch, but did you have to go 15 rounds with Barry to get this gig?” asks Jeremy Boyce. “I can’t believe he’s not on today, especially as his boys will be expecting to maximum this afternoon despite Leeds’ recent perkiness.

“Sixty-eight years old and Leeds til I die as I am, I remember very clearly that grim day in 73, Montgomery’s double save, Porterfield’s goal, my inner ‘Noooooooo....’ as the final whistle went, Stokoe... If we can scratch a point today all the better, better still do some proper damage to Sunderland’s flying start back in the big time.”

Baz is off today, though I’m flattered you think I would have been chosen for a game he wanted to cover. The only Guardian Sports Desk Top Trumps category in which I beat Baz is baldness. Oh, and encyclopaedic knowledge of the 1988-89 Division One season, but they left that off the latest edition. I had a rating of 100 as well.

A reminder of the teams

Sunderland (possible 4-2-3-1) Roefs; Hume, Mukiele, Alderete, Cirkin; Xhaka, Geertruida; Rigg, Le Fee, Adingra; Brobbey.
Subs: Patterson, Tutierov, J Jones, Hjelde, H Jones, Neil, Mundle, Mayenda.

Leeds (3-3-2-2) Perri; Rodon, Bijol, Struijk; Bogle, Ampadu, Gudmundsson; Aaronson, Stach; Calvert-Lewin, Okafor.
Subs: Darlow, Justin, Bornaut, Harrison, Tanaka, Gruev, Gnonto, Piroe, Nmecha.

Referee Tony Harrington.

“Oh, to read the mind of Thomas Tuchel about Dominic Calvert-Lewin,” writes Eric Peterson. “I have a theory that DCL’s resurgence might actually work against him for an England recall. As tactically flexible as Tuchel has been with England (three or four at the back, attacking/holding mids versus a flat midfield), his formations all seem to feature that trademark Harry Kane central striker role, and DCL’s surge might be seen by Tuchel as relying on Daniel Farke’s shift to an attacking pair along with Noah Okafor.”

Would his selection not be to give England a different option from the bench, in which case all tactical bets are off? I do think England’s World Cup chances could depend on the variety of options they have on the bench. For example, if they’re 2-1 down to France with 10 minutes ago, there’s a decent case for bringing on Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Johan Cruyff on the Sunderland/Leeds FA Cup final of 1973

‘Porterfield!’

“Sunderland v Leeds today, following West Ham v Fulham yesterday,” notes Justin Kavanagh. “The Prem has served us up two mid-70s FA Cup Finals this weekend. In appreciation, I’ve dug out my brown suit with the flared pants, wide-collared yellow polyester shirt, and short paisley tie in eye-popping lime green and purple; I’ve also fired up the fondue fountain and the Bass Ale and Blue Nun are on ice. And they say nostalgia is crack cocaine for old people!”

I’m ’avin ’oops.