Bowyer takes the curtain call

David O'Leary's soaring first full season in command at Elland Road may have encountered some disagreeable turbulence lately, and there may be more when Jonathan Woodgate and Lee Bowyer stand in front of a city magistrate this morning, but Leeds United continued on their impressive rise last night.

Only a disaster in Prague can now prevent Leeds from tasting their first European semi-final since Jimmy Armfield steered the club to that stage 25 years ago.

Then they beat Barcelona before losing to Bayern Munich in the final of the European Cup and the impression this vibrant young team leave is that meeting either of those giants would not faze them now. This was a comprehensive defeat of fair opposition. The Czechs fielded seven internationals, but were three down before losing their captain Karel Rada with 14 minutes to go, sent off for a foul on Jason Wilcox. It was Radek's second yellow card in just over a minute.

Shortly before that Bowyer had also seen yellow, his third card of the competition. That means Bowyer is suspended for the return leg in Prague next Thursday.

Bowyer can at least remember his evening's work here with pride. Not only did he score his 11th goal of the season, Bowyer created the opener for Wilcox and generally had a combative foot in most of Leeds's frequent probes.

At the end, wearing his number 11 shirt, Bowyer took what looked like a valedictory solo bow in front of an appreciative Revie Stand.

"Bowyer for England," they chanted. Woodgate, meanwhile, sat watching, injured. Alfie Haaland was a most capable stand-in for the central defender.

Ultimately Slavia were a disappointment, their manager Frantisek Cipro admitting his players were "a bit frightened" by the atmosphere. Just as Leeds had helped erase Italy's representatives from this season's competition - for the first time since 1984 no Italian team made the last eight - Slavia had done their bit, sending Udinese the same way as Roma.

Slavia's resilience should not have been in question therefore, and when this match became spiky around the half hour mark, the Czechs did equal Leeds's appetite for fierce tackling.

Adam Petrous did so to such an extent on Bowyer that he left the Leeds midfielder grounded and made his way into the referee's book. Bowyer, naturally for him, tried to exact physical revenge immediately but fortunately failed in the attempt. Bowyer's colleagues will have been glad that he settled for outsmarting Petrous instead.

Intercepting Libor Koller's poor clearance, Bowyer skipped away from Petrous on the touchline, swerved past Koller's lunge and then slid a diagonal pass into the path of Harry Kewell.

Given that Kewell had wasted an inviting opening as early as the second minute - planting a shot against Cerny Radek's legs when he should have scored with ease - and that Radek had then made a sprawling save to deny another Kewell effort just before the half hour, Leeds fans must have been pleased that just when it seemed Kewell was about to take possession on the edge of the area Wilcox surged past him and clipped the ball high past Radek.

It was an advantage Leeds's consistent pressure warranted. Tomas Dosek and Tomas Kuchar may have offered some threatening movement in Slavia's occasional attacks, but it was the Yorkshire side dictating the tempo.

Aside from Wilcox's goal and Kewell's misses, Bowyer saw an instinctive six-yard prod flash into the grasp of Radek and Michael Bridges looped the ball over when seizing on a limp Petr Vleck backpass.

All of which occurred before halftime. Nigel Martyn, meanwhile, made no saves. However, to O'Leary's credit the team he has fashioned does not settle for praise alone and within 14 minutes of the re-start they had converted their domination into a convincing win.

First Kewell redeemed his previous blush, rushing onto Eirik Bakke's driven low centre from the right edge of the Prague box and sidefooting home from close range; it was Kewell's 13th goal of a sparkling season. That was in the 54th minute and five minutes later Bowyer capped an eventful evening when he charged onto Bridges' beautiful cross-field pass to drive the ball emphatically through Radek. Well, we thought he had capped it, but then Bowyer got himself booked.

Not that O'Leary appeared bothered. "It was lovely, it was nice to win," he said. "We've given ourselves a great chance, but I thought we could have won by more."

Leeds Utd: Martyn, Kelly, Haaland, Radebe, Harte, Bowyer, Bakke, McPhail (Huckerby 78), Wilcox, Bridges (Smith 87), Kewell. Subs Not Used: Hopkin, Mills, Jones, Duberry, Robinson. Booked: Bowyer. Goals: Wilcox 39, Kewell 54, Bowyer 59.

Slavia Prague: R Cerny, Vlcek (Vagner 55), Rada, Koller, L Dosek, Kuchar, Dostalek (Hysky 65), Horvath, Petrous, T Dosek, Ulich. Subs Not Used: Lerch, Kozel, Skala, Vozabal, Vaclavik. Sent Off: Rada (76). Booked: Petrous, Rada, Ulich.

Referee: Markus Merk (Germany).