The 2018-19 English Championship playoffs are here again, apart from the promotion into the elite division, the EPL at stake, the financial reward at stake is even more lucrative and worth playing for. It is by far the biggest prize money in football, more lucrative than the UEFA Champions League. While Real Madrid carted away an estimated £76.5 million for winning the 2017-18 UCL, Fulham earned an estimated £170.3 million for winning last season's playoffs, more than double Real Madrid's reward. So, it is understandable why teams will go the length in winning the championship playoffs. This season's playoff fixtures include;
Derby Country vs Leeds United,
Aston Villa vs West Bromwich Albion.
the winner of these 2-leg ties with compete for glory at the Wembley Stadium.
Aston Villa 2-1 West Brom (1st leg):
Aston Villa-West Brom rivalry is dated back to the late 19th century (1882). The tie between these 2 West Midlands clubs is popularly known as the West Midlands derby, with the 2 rival's stadia, Villa Park and The Hawthorns some 4 miles apart. West Brom holds the head-to-head advantage over Villa in the 2 fixtures played this season, winning 2 nil at Villa Park and a 2 all draw in the reverse fixture. Though West Brom lost the season's finale match to Derby County, they had already secured playoffs status with 3 games to spare, finishing in 4th place behind Leeds United. A remarkable job by the caretaker manager, Jimmy Shan who only took over from Daren Moore in March. Aston Villa, on the other hand, had a brilliant end-of-the-season run, a run of 11-match unbeaten prior to the last game of the season, a run that includes 10-straight win and a draw. One player that has been singled out for Villa's brilliant run is the much sort after, Jack Grealish, he has been outstanding for Villa, it is hard to see if he will not be snapped away by bigger clubs. The possibility of 2 ex-Chelsea player squaring up against each other at the dugout is very likely if Villa( which has John Terry as an assistant to Dean Smith) could navigate past West Brom and Derby County(which has Frank Lampard as her manager) overcomes Leeds United.
The odds overwhelmingly favoured Villa(@ 1.96) to Win this 1st tie over West Brom(@ 4.12), and so it turned out to be, but it didn't start according to the script for Villa. They went behind in the 16th minute when Dwight Gayle long-range left-footed shot beat Villa's Jed Steer in goal. They tried to get back into the game just 2 minutes later, but Anwar El-Ghazi's effort was well saved by West Brom's Sam Johnstone in goal. Villa probed for an equalizer but couldn't hit the target, and when they did get an effort on target in the dying minutes of the 1st half(45+2 min) through defender, Tyrone Mings, but West Brom goalkeeper saved well to keep his team's lead into the interval.
Villa start from where they left off after the break, asking all the questions from West Brom, Sam Johnstone in goal for Albion was call into action again in the 59th minute by Villa's Grealish, the goalkeeper saved well, Johnstone pulled another save in the 65th minute to deny El-Ghazi. All Villa's dominance and pressure paid off in the 75th minute when a long-range effort from outside the box by Conor Hourihane beat Johnstone atlas, 1 all at Villa Park, with about 15 minutes plus added time still to play for. 4 minutes after they levelled, Villa took the lead via a converted spot-kick by Tammy Abraham after Grealish had drawn a foul from Kieran Gibbs in the box. In the 88th minute, Albion was reduced to 10 men after Dwight Gayle received his marching order for a reckless tackle, and will now miss the decisive 2nd leg. 2-1 is how it finished in favour of the home team at Villa Park.
Derby County 0-1 Leeds United(1st leg):
If there is one thing in the mind of Derby County manager, Frank Lampard, it would be vengeance. His team lost both fixtures against Leeds United in the league (1-4 home loss and a 2 nil loss at Elland Road), Lampard would want to have one over Leeds manager, Marcelo Bielsa, whose Spygate comment after the 2nd defeat of Leeds sparked Lampard's anger along with most managers in the league. Derby secured their playoffs status with a back-to-back end of the season's wins, to finished 6th ahead of Middlesbrough. Leeds United started the league well and was cruising in 2nd automatic promotion spot until thing went south, especially after the Spygate comment. A dip in form that saw them lose 3 out of their last 4 end-of-the-season matches(L, D, L, L, ) and missed out on automatic promotion to Norwich City and Sheffield United. Leeds United fascinating tale is dated back to 2000, from playing back-to-back European football(2000 UEFA Cup semifinal loss to Galatasaray and 2001 UCL semifinal loss to Valencia) to getting relegated in 2003-04, they then fell into administration and end up in League 1 in 2006-07, it was a freefall from grace to grass. This season's Championship playoffs is their 2nd attempt to gain promotion since their drop in 2004(1st attempt was a playoffs final loss to Watford in 2005-06).
Leeds once again proved her dominance over Derby County with a 1 nil win at the Pride Park Stadium, It was a fiercely contested tie that saw a total of 27 fouls, with 7 cautions, 4 for Derby and 3 for the visitors, Leeds. A match of limited opportunities where the home side failed to register a single shot on target all night, in fact, no shot was registered on target for either side until Leeds' goal in the 2nd half(55 min), Leeds' Kemar Roofe connected well with a Jack Harrison cross to beat Kelle Roos in goal for Derby. It could have been 2 nil a couple of minutes later, Harrison and Roofe combined again, but the goalkeeper saved this time. Derby thought they had won a spot-kick in the 77th minute, only for the referee to overturn his decision after consulting his assistant. Leeds substitute, Jamie Shackleton wants in on the action, but his effort was saved by Roos in the 81st minute. Leeds comfortably saw off the match for a 1 nil win going into the reverse fixture.
These 2 matches are far from over since the away goal rule does not apply in the playoffs, a 1 goal margin for both of West Brom and Derby County in the reverse fixture will level the scores against their opponents. The return legs will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.
Thank you all for your time.
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