2021 EFL Championship play-off Final

2021 EFL Championship play-off Final

Brentford Swansea City 2 0
Report
Date	29 May 2021 (2021-05-29)
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Player of the Match	Emiliano Marcondes
Referee	Chris Kavanagh
Attendance	11,689
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The 2021 EFL Championship play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 29 May 2021 at Wembley Stadium, London, to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, to the Premier League. The top two teams of the 2020–21 EFL Championship, Norwich City and Watford, gained automatic promotion to the Premier League, while the clubs placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in 2021 English Football League play-offs. Brentford and Swansea City competed for the final place for the 2021–22 season in the Premier League, and Brentford ended up the winning team.

This was Brentford's second consecutive play-off final after losing in extra-time to West London Derby rivals Fulham in the 2020 EFL Championship play-off Final on 4 August 2020.

Winning the final and promotion was estimated to be worth £178 million to the successful team.

Route to the final

Brentford finished the regular 2020–21 season in third place – for the second successive season – in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system, one place and seven points ahead of Swansea City. They therefore missed out on the two automatic places for promotion to the Premier League and instead took part in the play-offs to determine the third and final promoted team. They finished 4 points behind Watford (who were promoted in second place) and 10 behind league winners Norwich City. They had gone seven games unbeaten towards the end of the season, starting with a 5–0 away win against Preston North End on 10 April and ending with a final-day 3–1 home victory against Bristol City on 8 May 2021.

In their play-off semi-final, Brentford faced Bournemouth with the first match of the two-legged tie played at the Vitality Stadium in Boscombe on 17 May 2021 in front of 2,000 Bournemouth fans as part of the pilot scheme to get fans back into stadiums after the recent lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic in England. After a goalless first half, Arnaut Danjuma scored on the counter-attack in the 55th minute from a through ball from David Brooks. It was the game's only goal as Bournemouth won 1–0. The second leg of the semi-final was played five days later at the Gtech Community Stadium – the first play-off semi-final to be played at the stadium – in front of 4,000 Brentford fans. Danjuma increased Bournemouth's aggregate lead in the first five minutes. However, Brentford were awarded a penalty 11 minutes later which Ivan Toney scored and then 12 minutes later Bournemouth were reduced to ten players when Chris Mepham was sent off. The first half ended 1–1. Five minutes after the interval, Vitaly Janelt scored for Brentford to make it 2–1 to Brentford on the day and 2–2 on aggregate. With nine minutes of the match remaining, Marcus Forss scored for Brentford to make it 3–1 to them on the day. Brentford qualified for the final 3–2 on aggregate.

Swansea City's opposition for their semi-final were Barnsley and the first leg was held at the Oakwell in Barnsley on 17 May 2021 in front of an attendance of 4,000 supporters. André Ayew opened the scoring in the 39th minute with a curling left-footed shot past Bradley Collins in the Barnsley goal. Carlton Morris hit Swansea City's crossbar in second-half injury time but the match ended 1–0. The second leg was played five days later at the Liberty Stadium in Swansea. Matt Grimes extended the home side's aggregate lead six minutes before half-time with a curling strike. In the 71st minute, Cauley Woodrow scored for Barnsley from the edge of the Swansea penalty area, and with no further scoring, the match ended 1–1 with Swansea City progressing to the final with a 2–1 aggregate victory.

Match

Background

This is Swansea's second Championship play-off final, having won the 2011 Football League Championship play-off Final 4–2 against Reading. They also lost in the third-tier final in 2006 on penalties to Barnsley at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. They have played in the Championship since being relegated from the Premier League in the 2017–18 season, and had lost in the previous season's play-offs at the semi-final stage, losing 3–2 on aggregate to Brentford. Brentford had failed to win in four play-off final attempts: they lost the 1997 Football League Second Division play-off Final 1–0 against Crewe Alexandra, were defeated 2–0 in the 2002 Football League Second Division play-off Final by Stoke City, lost to Yeovil Town in the 2013 Football League One play-off Final 2–1 and were beaten in extra-time by West London Derby rivals Fulham in the 2020 EFL Championship play-off Final. They have also lost in five play-off semi-finals. Brentford had not played in the top flight of English football for 73 years, having been relegated to the second tier in their 1946–47 season.

Brentford's Ivan Toney was the Championship's top scorer during the regular season with 32 goals while Ayew was Swansea City's leading scorer with 17 goals, followed by Jamal Lowe on 14. Both matches between the sides during the regular season ended as 1–1 draws, the first at the Brentford Community Stadium in November 2020 and the second at the Liberty Stadium the following January.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the capacity was originally limited to 10,000. Following an appeal to the UK government and to footballing authorities, the capacity was raised to 12,000, the two clubs distributing 10,000 tickets betweeen themselves. Winning the final and promotion was estimated to be worth £178 million to the successful team.

Details

29 May 2021 15:00 BST	Brentford	2–0	Swansea City	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 11,689 Referee: Chris Kavanagh
	Toney  10' (pen.) Marcondes  20'	Report	Fulton  65'

Brentford

Swansea City

GK 1 David Raya CB 22 Henrik Dalsgaard CB 18 Pontus Jansson (C) 79' CB 5 Ethan Pinnock RM 30 Mads Roerslev CM 8 Mathias Jensen CM 27 Vitaly Janelt 70' 74' LM 7 Sergi Canós 74' AM 9 Emiliano Marcondes 22' 90+2' CF 17 Ivan Toney CF 19 Bryan Mbeumo Substitutes: GK 28 Luke Daniels DF 4 Charlie Goode DF 23 Winston Reid 79' DF 36 Fin Stevens MF 6 Christian Nørgaard MF 20 Saman Ghoddos 74' MF 24 Tariqe Fosu MF 41 Mads Bidstrup 90+2' FW 15 Marcus Forss 74' Head Coach: Thomas Frank

GK 1 Freddie Woodman CB 26 Kyle Naughton 60' CB 44 Ben Cabango CB 5 Marc Guéhi DM 8 Matt Grimes (C) 6' RM 23 Connor Roberts CM 6 Jay Fulton  65' CM 14 Conor Hourihane 63' LM 24 Jake Bidwell 83' CF 10 André Ayew CF 9 Jamal Lowe Substitutes: GK 18 Ben Hamer DF 2 Ryan Bennett DF 3 Ryan Manning 83' DF 22 Joel Latibeaudiere DF 34 Kieron Freeman MF 7 Korey Smith MF 21 Yan Dhanda 63' FW 17 Morgan Whittaker FW 20 Liam Cullen 60' Head Coach: Steve Cooper

Man of the Match:

Statistics

	Brentford	Swansea City
Possession	43%	57%
Goals scored	2	0
Shots on target	3	0
Shots off target	5	7
Fouls committed	16	13
Corner kicks	4	3
Yellow cards	2	1
Red cards	0	1

External links

• BBC Report