Brentford Win £180million Championship Play-off Final To Earn Premier League Promotion

Brentford will play in the top flight of English football for the first time in 74 years next season, after defeating ten-man Swansea 2-0 in the Championship play-off final.


The Bees opened up an early lead thanks to goals from Ivan Toney and Emiliano Marcondes and saw the game out relatively worry-free. The dismissal of Swansea’s Jay Fulton only went to aid their cause even further.
The Scottish midfielder was shown a straight red for what looked a poor tackle on Mathias Jensen early in the second period.
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In the end, after so many near misses in the playoffs down the years, Brentford comfortably got over the line to finally end years of heartache and earn a whopping £180million in the process.
Victory means Brentford will now contest a campaign in the top tier for only the sixth time in their history – and their first since 1947 .

For Steve Cooper’s side it is a second successive year in which the Bees have ended their hopes of a Premier League return – having fallen short against Thomas Frank’s men in last year’s semi-final.
Only 12,000 were inside Wembley but the noise belied that number, with the fans’ presence adding a real edge to the encounter. After an initial slow start the game burst into life after ten minutes.
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Sergi Canos put through a delicious through-ball which Bryan Mbeumo just got to before being hauled down by onrushing City stopper Freddie Woodman.
Referee Chris Kavanagh blew his whistle almost immediately. Toney then stepped up and as has now become the norm, he casually stroked the ball home for an incredible 33rd strike of the campaign.

Swansea rallied slightly but were hit by a sucker punch on 20 minutes when Brentford scored a superb breakaway second.
Mbeumo latched onto it and dashed into the Swans’ half. He then fed it inside the area to Mads Roerslev and he picked out the onrushing Marcondes.
The Dane still had plenty to do but he picked out the bottom corner with a sumptuous finish to send the Bees’ fans wild.

It could have been 3-0 barely a minute later.  Toney smacked a glorious effort that hit the bar and bounced down. It was agonisingly short of crossing the line, in a huge escape for City.
Mbeumo was gifted a chance towards the end of the half when Marc Guehi misjudged a header back to Woodman.

Mbeumo pounced on the error but ended up fluffing his shot. Andre Ayew came close to reducing the arrears on the brink of half-time but his header bounced off the top of the crossbar in a rare attempt on goal from the Welsh side.

And the Ghanaian was close to netting just after the restart too. He stooped to plant a header just wide after a delicious centre from Connor Roberts.
Swansea were much brighter in he second half with Jamal Lowe snatching a shot wide from an acute angle as Steve Cooper’s side attempted a late rally.

But all the energy they put into launching a comeback was completely punctured when Jay Fulton was sent off with a quarter of the game to go. The midfielder produced a poor challenge on Jensen, with what looked about as blatant a red card as you’re ever likely to see. However, replays appeared to show that Fulton may well have slipped on the turf.

Either way, it effectively killed off any lingering hopes of a Swansea comeback. The full-time whistle saw jubilant celebrations from the Brentford players and staff.
“Even when they had 11 men, they didn’t create any chances,” said Toney. “I’m in the Premier League with the best bunch of boys I could have dreamed of. I’m a Premier League striker now and I can’t wait to score goals in the Prem.”
Their delighted fans can look forward to seeing their side pit their wits against the likes of Manchester City , Liverpool and Arsenal next term.

Photo Credit: Getty

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