There’s likely to be plenty of noise emanating from Elland Road on Sunday but, on this occasion, it will be for a game being played just under three and a half thousand miles away after the San Francisco 49ers moved into a familiar position — a step away from a place in the Super Bowl.
Reaching the NFC Championship Game has become a habit for the Niners, who progressed to that stage for the third time in four seasons by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 19-12 at Levi’s Stadium last Sunday.
Their previous two trips to the Conference Championship have produced a blowout win over the Green Bay Packers in the 2019 season and an agonising defeat to the Los Angeles Rams in the 2021 campaign, and the obstacle they must clear to make it two Super Bowl appearances in four seasons is arguably more formidable than the eventual Super Bowl-champion Rams they succumbed to last season.
