Championship play-off final Aston Villa v Derby County

The Championship play-off final will be played on Monday 27th May at Wembley with Derby County and Aston Villa trying to make it back to the Premier League. The Championship play-off final is known as the most valuable match in football because the team that wins gets 100 million pounds and if they are able to retain their place in the Premier League that figure increases much more.

Aston Villa have been one of the more exciting teams in the Championship this season, having scored the third highest goals in the league. They had a tough start to the season, and it looked like it would be hard for them to make the playoffs, however, after a strong finish, which included 10 wins in a row, they made it. They faced West Brom in the semi-finals with the first leg ending 2-1 for Villa. In the second leg, West Brom got the first goal, however, neither team could get another goal and the game went to extra time and then penalties, as there is no away goals, rule in the playoffs. West Brom missed their first two penalties and that is a tough task to come back from. Villa ended up winning the shootout 4-3 and make it to the final.

Frank Lampard’s first season as a manager has been very good and exceeded the expectations of many people. He plays possession based, build up football, however, many of his players are loaned from bigger clubs and will struggle to keep the same team next year. Derby had a bit of an inconsistent season, but they were always around the play-off positions. They only made it into 6th place on the penultimate game week beating Bristol City to take their place. They met Leeds in the semi-final with Leeds coming away with a 0-1 victory in the first leg. In the second leg, Leeds went into half time winning 1-0 and 2-0 on aggregate and everyone thought the game was over. However, three goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half put Derby in the lead. Leeds got a goal back but in the 85th minute, Marriot scored to send Derby to the final.