“Mateta, as far as being a Crystal Palace player is concerned, is an unknown quantity,” he said in his pre-match interview. “This is a great opportunity to show us what he can do.
“Obviously we know what Jordan [Ayew] can do, he’s played most of his games for us up front. I’m just hoping they will combine well most of all.
“When we do get the ball, we’ll be looking to play the ball into them and see if we can test the Leeds defence.”
Hodgson reiterated the importance not just of his attacking duo, but of his side’s defensive efforts.
“We’ll have to try and contain them because they’ve got such a lot of firepower going forward, such energy, such desire to get forwards. First we have to contain their attacks, then get hold of the ball so we can ask questions of them.
“We had a good rehearsal for that at Newcastle, especially at the end of the game when they had a lot of attacking players on the field. They were playing a lot of balls forward into our penalty area and we were able to defend well.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to do that tonight.”
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