2022 EFL Championship play-off Final

2022 EFL Championship play-off Final

Huddersfield Town Nottingham Forest 0 1
Report
Date	May 2022
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Referee	Jonathan Moss
Attendance	80,019
← 2021 2023 →

The 2022 EFL Championship play-off Final was an association football match which was played on 29 May 2022 at Wembley Stadium, London, England 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 2021–22 EFL Championship, Fulham and Bournemouth, have gained automatic promotion to the Premier League, while the clubs placed from third to sixth in the table took part in the 2022 English Football League play-offs. Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest competed for the final place in the 2022–23 Premier League season.

Route to the final

Main article:2022 English Football League play-offs#Championship

EFL Championship final table, leading positions

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Fulham (C, P)	46	27	09	10	106	43	+63	90
2	Bournemouth (P)	46	25	13	08	74	39	+35	88
3	Huddersfield Town	46	23	13	10	64	47	+17	82
4	Nottingham Forest	46	23	11	12	73	40	+33	80
5	Sheffield United	46	21	12	13	63	45	+18	75
6	Luton Town	46	21	12	13	63	55	+08	75

Source: EFL Official Website
(C) Champion; (P) Promoted

Huddersfield Town finished the regular 2021–22 season in third place in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system, one place and two points ahead of Nottingham Forest. They both 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. Huddersfield Town finished six points behind Bournemouth (who were promoted in second place) and eight behind league winners Fulham.

In their play-off semi-final, Huddersfield Town faced sixth-placed Luton Town with the first match of the two-legged tie taking place at Kenilworth Road in Luton on 13 May 2022. In the 12th minute, Harry Toffolo passed the ball forward for Danel Sinani who struck the ball past Matt Ingram in the Luton Town goal to give Huddersfield Town the lead. Eighteen minutes later, Sonny Bradley scored from Kal Naismith's free kick to level the score. Although Huddersfield controlled the second half, neither side were able to add to their score and the match ended 1–1. The return leg was held three days later at the John Smith's Stadium in Huddersfield. Luton Town dominated the first half but failed to capitalise and with eight minutes to go in the second half, Jordan Rhodes scored from close range from a Sorba Thomas free kick, to secure a 1–0 victory for Huddersfield Town, and progression to the final with a 2–1 win on aggregate.

In the other play-off semi-final, Nottingham Forest met Sheffield United and the first leg was held at Bramall Lane in Sheffield on 14 May 2022. The visiting side took an early lead when Jack Colback scored after Wes Foderingham had saved a shot from Philip Zinckernagel. Brennan Johnson then doubled his side's lead with 19 minutes of the match remaining after taking advantage of an error from John Egan. One minute into injury time, Sander Berge scored from a Morgan Gibbs-White corner to halve the deficit and the matched ended 2–1 to Nottingham Forest. The second leg was played three days later at the City Ground in Nottingham. In the 19th minute, Johnson scored for Nottingham Forest to give them a 3–1 aggregate lead but Gibbs-White and John Fleck scored second-half goals for Sheffield United to force the match into extra time. With no change to the scoreline in the extra 30 minutes, the game went to a penalty shoot-out. Brice Samba, the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper, had made a number of saves during regular and extra time, denied three of the Sheffield United penalty-takers and Nottingham Forest won the shoot-out 3–2 to qualify for the final. During a pitch invasion after the match, Sheffield United’s Billy Sharp was headbutted to the ground and required stitches to a wound: the perpetrator was later jailed.

Match

Background

This was Huddersfield Town's sixth appearance in a play-off final, most recently in the 2017 EFL Championship play-off Final where they drew 0–0 with Reading before going on to win 4–3 in the resulting penalty shoot-out to secure promotion to the Premier League. This was also Huddersfield Town's most recent appearance at Wembley Stadium. They were relegated two seasons later and have played in the second tier of English football since the 2019–20 season. Nottingham Forest will be playing in their first play-off final, having been knocked out in the semi-finals three times in the 2000s. They have played in the Championship for fourteen seasons after securing promotion from League One in the 2007–08 season. Nottingham Forest made their most recent appearance at the national stadium when they lost 1–0 to Manchester United in the 1992 Football League Cup Final at the original Wembley. The final will however be Forest's first appearance at the new Wembley since the stadium was re-opened in 2007.

Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield Town had faced each other three times during the season, with both sides winning away in the league. Nottingham Forest won 2–0 in September 2021 while Huddersfield Town secured a 1–0 victory three months later. In March 2022, the teams played each other in the fifth round of the 2021–22 FA Cup, with Nottingham Forest coming from behind to win 2–1. Going into the final, Johnson was top scorer for Nottingham Forest with 18 goals and 10 assists in 48 appearances, while Danny Ward was leading marksman for Huddersfield Town, having scored 14 times and making 3 assists in 42 games.

In May 2022, the EFL announced that for the first time, the video assistant referee (VAR) system would be used at all play-off finals. The referee for the final was Jonathan Moss who was assisted by Marc Perry and Tim Wood. Craig Pawson was the fourth official while Paul Tierney acted as the VAR.

Details

29 May 2022 (2022-05-29) 16:30 BST	Huddersfield Town	0–1	Nottingham Forest	Wembley Stadium, London Attendance: 80,019 Referee: Jonathan Moss
		Report	Colwill  43' (o.g.)

Huddersfield Town

Nottingham Forest

GK 21 Lee Nicholls CB 32 Tom Lees CB 23 Naby Sarr 57' CB 26 Levi Colwill RM 2 Pipa CM 6 Jonathan Hogg (c) CM 8 Lewis O'Brien LM 3 Harry Toffolo 73' RW 24 Danel Sinani 66' CF 25 Danny Ward 67' LW 16 Sorba Thomas Substitutes: GK 18 Jamal Blackman DF 4 Matty Pearson DF 20 Ollie Turton MF 7 Tino Anjorin MF 19 Duane Holmes 66' MF 37 Jon Russell 57' MF 9 Jordan Rhodes 67' Head Coach: Carlos Corberán

GK 30 Brice Samba 90' CB 4 Joe Worrall (c) CB 27 Steve Cook CB 26 Scott McKenna RM 2 Djed Spence CM 22 Ryan Yates CM 37 James Garner LM 8 Jack Colback AM 11 Philip Zinckernagel 55' 74' CF 20 Brennan Johnson CF 9 Keinan Davis 66' Substitutes: GK 1 Ethan Horvath 90' DF 3 Tobias Figueiredo DF 15 Max Lowe 74' MF 18 Cafú MF 23 Joe Lolley FW 16 Sam Surridge 66' FW 17 Alex Mighten Head Coach: Steve Cooper

Statistics

Possession	48.1%	51.9%
Goals scored	0	1
Shots on target	0	2
Shots off target	4	4
Fouls committed	7	11
Corner kicks	4	2
Yellow cards	1	1
Red cards	0	0

External links

• BBC Report