If Leeds United supporters could pick one match to win all season, a great many would agree on Manchester United’s visit to Elland Road. Not only are their cross-pennine neighbours their most hated rivals, but their visits have become a rare event in West Yorkshire.

The natives mine special depths of hostility when the old enemy is in town, but Covid and 18 years in the EFL doldrums have limited Elland Road fans to two league games in 22 years. Leeds supporters are yearning to taste that vitriol and will scarcely believe the optimism coursing through the club as they prepare for Sunday’s 12.30pm kick-off.

New Year’s Day saw Daniel Farke’s side extend their unbeaten run to six matches in the top flight. The last time they avoided defeat for that long in the Premier League, Marcelo Bielsa was head coach and Manchester United were playing out a drab 0-0 at Elland Road in April 2021.

Liverpool undoubtedly dominated every meaningful statistic in Thursday’s goalless draw, but the bar for domination was very low in a dire match that did nothing for the neutral and everything for Leeds. Farke was able to make four changes for the second of four games over 10 days and still preserve the momentum which has been building since November 29.

James Justin and Sebastiaan Bornauw were drafted in for rare starts and barely put a foot wrong in one of the toughest assignments of the season. They slotted in for Jayden Bogle and Joe Rodon, Farke’s most-used players this season, and kept the defence whirring.

Justin was arguably United’s man of the match, personally thwarting Florian Wirtz with two last-gasp blocks in the first half as a wing-back, before proving equally dependable at centre-back in the latter stages. Bornauw was every inch the Belgian giant the club recruited in the summer, proving strong in the tackle and resounding in the air, and even celebrated a decisive block on Hugo Ekitike in the second half.

The wider system, though, as it has since half-time at Manchester City, continued to be so competitive. Yes, some of the attacking intent was stripped from recent games, but that was necessary in bolstering their impenetrable deep block at the home of the defending champions.

This was an unashamed 5-4-1 in three clear banks for long periods of the match, gritty, sniffing out second balls and home errors, clearances, blocks, recoveries, choosing when to press and when to sit. It was disciplined, and it was rewarded at the full-time whistle.

Naturally, there were anxious flurries in the first half, but Lucas Perri was virtually untested after the break. Dominic Calvert-Lewin was only denied a goal in a seventh consecutive game by a half-yard offside decision, which would have nicked it for the visitors.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin beats Alisson but the strike was ruled out for offside (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

United’s talisman was one of the many positives on the night. In making those changes to the line-up and still preserving the unbeaten run, Farke can now call on far fresher versions of Calvert-Lewin, Bogle and Noah Okafor for Sunday.

Farke has to use his squad when the fixture list is this tight, but of the four ties being played in this period, Sunday’s is undoubtedly the most important. This is why Ethan Ampadu’s fifth yellow card of the season was the one bitter aftertaste on Merseyside.

The captain has been phenomenal in this run of form and that was no different at Anfield. His maturity and leadership develop by the week. You could see him checking on his team-mates throughout the game, directing them, encouraging them and, in Perri’s case, explaining the referee’s instructions at one point.

His absence, like Rodon’s, will be felt on Sunday. If they could have guaranteed their availability for one match this season, you sense it would have been this weekend’s bearpit.

The small matter of Manchester United’s 48-hour headstart on recovery and preparation was not lost on Farke in Thursday’s press conference either.

“For momentum, it’s really good and we know how much it (Sunday) means for our supporters,” he said. “This is why I’m a bit annoyed with the fixture list, why it is today, evening kick-off, and then the earliest possible on Sunday, especially once you had two away games already with lots of travelling, but it is what it is.

“We have to accept this. Lots of adversity against us. Many, many key players out, fixture list in favour of Man Utd, but we still have Elland Road, and we know, when this place is rocking like no other and everyone is on it, even under this circumstance, we have a chance.

“We take the momentum and the confidence and the mood out of the last weeks into this game, but it’s also important no one else gets ill or injured. We have to recover smart and quick.”

Daniel Farke admitted frustration with the scheduling after the game (Darren Staples/AFP via Getty Images)

Sean Longstaff and Daniel James will also be missing. Bornauw and Ilia Gruev were nursing what Farke called cramp before their substitutions. He will pray they can go again, given who they are covering for.

While Ruben Amorim’s side seemed to squander much of their momentum in Tuesday’s draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leeds, as patched up and exhausted as they are, are still walking on air. Jaka Bijol, who is thriving as the middle centre-back under his penalty area’s recent aerial bombardment, says the gravity of Sunday has already been spelt out to them.

“It (the significance) is not only (from) one individual, I would say, it is many of them, like you guys (media) as well,” he told reporters at Anfield. “Today, you can see it straight away, also in the locker room.

“We already talked about it now, straight after the game, we really want to bring the energy on Sunday and to perform. (A) full Elland Road is going to be electric, for sure.

“We’re going to make sure we are here with a good performance. In the last weeks, we have shown we really want to bring every game 100 (per cent), not only derbies, but it always brings something more.”

Taking points on the road at a pre-season title contender was a new achievement on Thursday, but the next on the list would be clinching the biggest win of the season. Leeds fans have been made to wait, but the big one is here.