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Norwich are not favourites to make play-off final, says Alex Neil

Norwich City Manager Alex Neil on the touchline before the Sky Bet Championship fixture at Carrow Road, Norwich.
Image: Norwich City Manager Alex Neil reacts to semi-final first draw with Ipswich

Norwich City manager Alex Neil does not believe his side are favourites to make it to Wembley after drawing the first leg of their play-off semi-final with Ipswich Town on Saturday.

The East Anglian rivals played out a 1-1 draw at Portman Road, with the return leg to be played at Carrow Road next Saturday.

However, Neil refused to concede that Norwich now hold the advantage over Mick McCarthy’s team.

“It remains to be seen and the second leg will really dictate [how good a result it was],” Neil told Sky Sports after the match. “It is level pegging, obviously we are going to be at home in the second leg, so we will be looking to take advantage of that. But it will really determine how the next game goes.

“It was disappointing [not to go in ahead at half-time]. It was quite a strange game, because I felt in the first half there was not much in it, I thought it went either way. I thought we had some really good chances in the first half, whereas in the second half, the longer the game went on, the more of the ball we had, we had more of the game.

“But we did not really create a great deal of chances, so it was unusual in that respect. Obviously getting the lead was really pleasing, but once we conceded it was disappointing after that.

“I think the occasion itself was so huge, the derby, that both teams were well fired up for it, but to try and maintain that intensity for a full 90 minutes is extremely difficult. And I think certainly in the second half when the intensity did die down and we could get a foot on the ball, we could show our quality at times.

“I would not say that we are favourites, I think both teams go in sort of level pegging, we have seen how tight the game was today and so I am expecting a similar encounter at our place. But I am hoping our quality will come out in the end and hopefully we can get there.”

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