2015 Football League Championship play-off Final

2015 Football League Championship play-off final

Norwich City Middlesbrough 2 0
Event	2014–15 Football League Championship
Date	25 May 2015
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Mike Dean
Attendance	85,656
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The 2015 Football League Championship play-off final was a football match contested by Norwich City and Middlesbrough on 25 May 2015 at Wembley Stadium. The winner, Norwich City, gained promotion to the Premier League for the 2015–16 season.

It was Norwich's second appearance in a play-off final, having played in the 2002 Football League First Division play-off Final losing to Birmingham City on penalties. Described as "the richest game in football", victory in the game is worth an estimated £120m to the winning club.

Pre-match

On 19 May Wembley Stadium apologised to Middlesbrough supporters for issuing tickets with the team's name misspelled as "Middlesborough". Norwich City were allocated 38,888 tickets which were sold exclusively to season ticket holders and club members.

Teams

Team	Previous appearances (bold indicates winners)
Middlesbrough	1988
Norwich City	2002

Route to the final

Main article: 2014–15 Football League Championship

Note: In all results below, the score of the finalist is given first (H: home; A: away).

Middlesbrough				Round	Norwich
Opponent	Agg	1st leg	2nd leg	Championship	Opponent	Agg	1st leg	2nd leg
Championship 4th placed team Pos Team Pld Pts 3 Norwich City 46 86 4 Middlesbrough 46 85 5 Brentford 46 78 6 Ipswich Town 46 78 Full results list				Final standings	Championship 3rd placed team Pos Team Pld Pts 3 Norwich City 46 86 4 Middlesbrough 46 85 5 Brentford 46 78 6 Ipswich Town 46 78 Full results list
Brentford	5–1	2–1 (A)	3–0 (H)	Semi-finals	Ipswich Town	4–2	1–1 (A)	3–1 (H)

Semi-finals

      Finalist win       Draw       Finalist loss       Upcoming fixture

First leg

8 May 2015	Brentford	1–2	Middlesbrough	Griffin Park, London
19:45	Judge 31' Tarkowski 46' Gray  54' Bidwell 89'	BBC Report	Tomlin 15' Friend 17' Vossen  26' Adomah 40' Whitehead 41' Amorebieta 76'  90+3' Forshaw 85'	Attendance: 11,691 Referee: Jonathan Moss

9 May 2015	Ipswich Town	1–1	Norwich City	Portman Road, Ipswich
12:15	Anderson  45+4' 84'	BBC Report	Howson  41' Dorrans 47' Jerome 58'	Attendance: 29,166 Referee: Anthony Taylor

Second leg

15 May 2015	Middlesbrough	3–0	Brentford	Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough
19:45	Tomlin  23' Kike  55' Adomah  78'	BBC Report		Attendance: 33,266 Referee: Lee Mason

16 May 2015	Norwich City	3–1	Ipswich Town	Carrow Road, Norwich
12:15	Hoolahan  50' (pen.) Redmond  64' Jerome  76'	BBC Report	Smith  60'	Attendance: 26,994 Referee: Roger East

Match

25 May 2015 15:00	Middlesbrough	0-2	Norwich City	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 85,656 Referee: Mike Dean
		Report	Jerome  12' Redmond  15'

Middlesbrough

Norwich City

GK 13 Dimitrios Konstantopoulos RB 18 Dean Whitehead 46' CB 4 Daniel Ayala CB 6 Ben Gibson LB 3 George Friend RM 27 Albert Adomah CM 7 Grant Leadbitter CM 8 Adam Clayton LM 10 Lee Tomlin SS 21 Jelle Vossen 56' 68' CF 23 Patrick Bamford Substitutes: GK 12 Connor Ripley DF 29 Fernando Amorebieta DF 39 Jonathan Woodgate MF 20 Adam Reach MF 24 Emilio Nsue 46' MF 34 Adam Forshaw FW 9 Kike 68' Manager: Aitor Karanka

GK 1 John Ruddy RB 2 Steven Whittaker CB 5 Russell Martin CB 30 Sébastien Bassong LB 23 Martin Olsson DM 27 Alexander Tettey RM 22 Nathan Redmond 87' CM 8 Jonny Howson 62' CM 14 Wes Hoolahan 75' LM 4 Bradley Johnson CF 10 Cameron Jerome 74' Substitutes: GK 26 Declan Rudd DF 24 Ryan Bennett MF 17 Elliott Bennett MF 28 Gary O'Neil 87' MF 41 Graham Dorrans 75' FW 7 Lewis Grabban 74' FW 11 Gary Hooper Manager: Alex Neil

Match rules 90 minutes. 30 minutes of extra time if necessary. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Seven named substitutes. Maximum of three substitutions.