54 min “If it helps, Tim Woods, I’m currently drinking a Worthingtons in a social club in Swansea,” writes Matt Dony. “A world away from hot tubs or iced coffee. Also, football is dead.”

I know it’s been a bad week for Liverpool, but drinking Worthingtons to evoke the cup wins of 2001 and 2003 is a bit sad. Are you gonna down a pint of milk next?

52 min: Leeds substitution A limping Joe Rodon is replaced by Sebastiaan Bornauw. I think Soucek collided with him at the corner which led to the Adama break and foul by Ampadu.

51 min Castellanos is flagged offside – it was really tight – but carries on and waves an outrageous half-volley into the net. I’d like to see that again as it looked tight, though the whistle had gone so VAR couldn’t get involved.

51 min Rodon isn’t moving freely but he’s going to continue. Leeds have already lost Anton Stach and don’t want another important player to suffer an injury ahead of the run-in.

50 min “That wasn’t a bad half from West Ham, but our bench has no depth to it,” writes Ian Sargeant. “We’d all like to see Ajala but he played for the under-21s yesterday. Leeds, however, have a few of their bigger hitters in reserve. This is only going to end one way.”

49 min Joe Rodon is also done and needs treatment.

48 min There’s a VAR check for a potential red card. Ampadu was only trying to trip Adama but I think he caught him on the achilles in his follow through. Either way, it’s been checked and cleared.

47 min Adama leads a West Ham break and is taken down without sentiment by Ampadu, who puts his thumb up to acknowledge the inevitable yellow card.

46 min Peep peep!

West Ham are making a double substitution at half-time Tomas Soucek and Pablo are on for Freddie Potts and Soungoutou Magassa. That gives them a stronger, more attacking front six.

“If that wasn’t a foul on Stach,” writes our own Jacob Steinberg, “then how did Uruguay get a penalty for Ben White’s tackle in the England friendly?”

Will you accept an equation as an answer? VAR x social media = nobody has a clue.

Half-time reading

45+3 min Bowen hasn’t played badly, he rarely does, but deploying him on the left feels like a waste of West Ham’s best player.

45+1 min Four minutes of added time. Leeds are well worth their lead.

45 min “Iced coffee?” sniffs Tim Woods. “Iced coffee??? After Matt Dony’s recent hot-tub revelation, I’m beginning to feel the MBM isn’t the bitter-swilling collective of 1990s refugees I’d imagined.”

Not sure why it autocorrect to ‘iced coffee’ from ‘Special Brew’.

44 min A nice effort from Castelannos, who cushions a ball in from the left on the volley and screws a half-volley over the bar.

40 min Nmecha is booked for a late challenge on Disasi.

39 min: Leeds substitution Brenden Aaronson replaces the injured Anton Stach. I guess he’ll play as the No10 and Tanaka will drop into midfield.

38 min As I contrive to pour iced coffee all over my trousers, Adama volleys high and wide from an impossible angle beyond the far post.

37 min Ampadu’s long throw is nodded on and volleyed over by Nmecha, a tough chance under pressure from Walker-Peters.

36 min Stach is limping round the touchline and doesn’t look in great shape. Kilman was sliding to make a tackle, got their a split-second after Stach and caught him on the ankle.

36 min “Ao Tanaka is such an electric player,” writes Kári Tulinius. “When he’s on the ball there’s always a possibility something brilliant happens. At the very least he’ll cause chaos for the opposing defence. That Hajime Moriyasu only used him as a substitute against England shows how strong Japan are in attack. That Farke doesn’t consider him an automatic starter for Leeds baffles me.”

Japan could/should/will be so much fun at the World Cup.

35 min Stach is still down and receiving treatment to his right ankle.

33 min Leeds break menacingly through Okafor, who runs 40 yards and plays in the onrushing Stach to his right. His shot on the run is pushed round the post by the falling Areola. It’s an excellent save but Stach might have done better.

Stach was wiped out by Kilman after hitting the shot. There was a VAR check but it’s been cleared.

30 min No response to speak of from West Ham, who have looked good on the counter-attack but less incisive when they have the ball for a sustained spell.

Tanaka’s finish took a big deflection but he worked the space superbly. He started the move himself on the halfway line with a ball out to Justin on the left. Justin found Okafor, who slid an early ball towards Tanaka in the area.

Tanaka shaped to shoot with his right foot, dragged his studs over the ball to beat Magassa and struck a left-foot shot that hit Disasi and ricocheted over Areola.

23 min The lively Okafor runs at Walker-Peters to win a corner. It’s swung in and punched away, effectively if not entirely convincingly, by Areola. Doesn’t matter: the referee had blown for a free-kick to West Ham.

21 min Bogle’s shot on the turn is blocked by Diouf.

21 min Leeds have been the dominant team in open play yet Lucas Perri has had to make two important saves to Areola’s one. It’s complicated.

20 min Nmecha turns Kilman smartly and is pulled back. Stach has a pop from 40 yards, an ambitious effort that is booted away on the edge of the area.

13 min There’s the proof, a terrific West Ham counter-attack that almost leads to the opening goal. Adama goes on a barnstorming run from the right and finds Bowen, who fizzes a low shot from the left side of the area. Lucas Perri gets down smartly to his left to push it away.

I forgot to say that Bowen has started on the left with Adama on the right.

11 min Leeds are dominating possession – 66 per cent the last time I checked – though a Nuno Espirito Santo teams are often most dangerous when they don’t have the ball.

7 min That Lucas Perri save looks better every time you see it. The reaction time was almost non-existent.

3 min Leeds have made a flying start. Areola dithers in possession and is dangerously close to being sacked by Okafor.

2 min “Any news on why Callum Wilson isn’t in the West Ham squad?” asks Ian Sargeant.

Fraid not.

1 min West Ham kick off from left to right as we watch. You’ll be pleased to hear that national treasure Danny Dyer is in attendance at the London Stadium.

“If he organisers are trying to recapture some of the long-faded ‘magic of the cup’, they’ll need to turn the pitch at Wembley into a quagmire for any potential meeting of Chelsea and Leeds,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “The 1970 FA Cup final was famously played the day after the Horse of the Year Show, and looked more suited to WWI trench warfare than a football match, even one in the 70s. May I suggest that England’s national stadium offer to host Ireland’s National Ploughing Championships on the same week?”

Nuno Espirito Santo’s pre-match thoughts

Unfortunately we had some issues during the international break – we have some players who are not available or still recovering – but we are positive. At this stage of the season all the players are important.

It’s a big game for all of us, for our fans. We are positive – the players want to play the game.

Plenty going on elsewhere today, including a mighty shock in the Women’s FA Cup and another twist in the Scottish title race.

Pre-match quiz

Daniel Farke’s pre-match thoughts

At this stage of the season it’s never healthy for a group if you have three weeks without a competitive game. We had some players in action during the international break so it makes sense to rest all the others [who haven’t been playing].

It’s more than two decades since Leeds were in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup so we take this game very seriously.

[On Leeds’ failure to score in four of the last five games] For a newly promoted we have scored a lot of goals overall. We’ve also had three clean sheets in a row which is also important to me. During a long season it’s normal to have a period when you score goal after goal and sometimes you are struggling a bit.

“If ‘both teams could arguably do without this game’, then the FA Cup has fallen in importance even more than I thought,” writes Gary Stover. “Would the fans like to see a Leeds-Chelsea rematch at Wembley even if only a semi-final? Would the Southampton followers rather finish sixth in the Championship or go back to a final at Wembley? Hopefully the players of all five teams left will simply try to do what they do best and win whatever game is before them. I actually think that’s what will happen.”

Why Football Sucks in ‘26.

As Leeds travel to West Ham for an FA Cup quarter-final both teams could arguably do without, one thing is not in doubt: Daniel Farke knows how to read a balance sheet. As the holder of an MA in economics and a diploma in sporting directorship, the Leeds manager needs no reminders that, financially, avoiding relegation is infinitely more important than trying to win the FA Cup. “The Premier League’s our bread and butter,” he said on Thursday . “It’s our priority.”

There is, though, another side to Farke. Away from the training pitches at Thorp Arch, one of the German’s preferred ways of switching off is to spend hours reading on his sofa, transported to different worlds through his love of literary fiction. His favourite novels include Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Given Farke fully appreciates the best managers are, in a different context, similarly expert storytellers, can he resist pursuing a plot line that may just conclude with a survival and Cup glory double? Achieve that and the Elland Road hierarchy would find it very hard to resist furnishing the 49-year-old with the new contract he craves.