2024 EFL Championship play-off final

2024 EFL Championship play-off final

Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final.
Leeds United Southampton 0 1
Date	26 May 2024
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Man of the Match	Adam Armstrong (Southampton)
Referee	John Brooks
Attendance	85,862
← 2023 2025 →

The 2024 EFL Championship play-off final was an association football match played on 26 May 2024^[1] that decided the final team to get promotion from the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, to the Premier League. The top two teams of the 2023–24 EFL Championship, Leicester City and Ipswich Town, gained automatic promotion, while the clubs that placed from third to sixth took part in the 2024 English Football League play-offs.^[2][3] Promotion to the Premier League was estimated in 2024 to be worth up to £265 million to the play-off final winner.^[4]

The final was contested by Leeds United and Southampton, both of whom were relegated from the Premier League in the previous season and finished third and fourth respectively in the 2023–24 EFL Championship season. Southampton won the game 1–0, thus securing promotion back to the Premier League.

Route to the final[edit]

Leeds United finished the regular 2023–24 season in third place in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. They were six points behind second-placed Ipswich Town and seven points behind champions Leicester City. Southampton finished in fourth place, nine points behind Ipswich Town. Fifth and sixth-placed West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City finished 21 and 23 points respectively behind Ipswich Town. They all 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.^[5][6]

The first legs of the semi-finals took place on 12 May, contested between Norwich City and Leeds United at Carrow Road, and between West Bromwich Albion and Southampton at The Hawthorns. Both games finished in goalless draws, which was the first time that had happened since the 2011 Football League Championship play-offs semi-final first-legs between Nottingham Forest, Swansea City, Reading and Cardiff City.^[7][8]

The return leg between Leeds United and Norwich City was played at Elland Road on 16 May. Attacking their opponents from the kick-off, Leeds' Crysencio Summerville curled a shot over the bar after only two minutes. Leeds were later awarded a free-kick after a foul on Joe Rodon, which Ilia Gruev took; he deceived Norwich goalkeeper Angus Gunn into expecting a cross, but instead shot towards the near post to make it 1–0 in the seventh minute. In the 20th minute, Leeds made it 2–0 after Joël Piroe headed in a cross from Wilfried Gnonto. Georginio Rutter made it 3–0 in the 40th minute, crashing the ball into the net off of the crossbar after a breakaway Leeds' attack. Summerville made it 4–0 in the 68th minute, tapping the ball in from close range after Gnonto's shot had been parried by Gunn to Junior Firpo who squared the ball to Summerville. No further goals were scored as Leeds won the tie 4–0 on aggregate to make the play-off final on 26 May.^[9] Following the match, the Leeds squad gathered into a huddle in the centre circle while the home fans in the stands sang "I Predict a Riot" by Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs.^[10] Norwich manager David Wagner said after the game, "It was a poor performance from us. Everything you should not do, we have done".^[9] He was sacked by the club the day after the match.^[11]

The second leg between Southampton and West Bromwich Albion was played at St Mary's Stadium on 17 May. Southampton opened the scoring in the second half in the 49th minute as Will Smallbone struck the ball from an angle to put it past West Brom goalkeeper Alex Palmer and give his team a 1–0 advantage. Adam Armstrong later made it 2–0 in the 78th minute. In the 85th minute, Southampton were awarded a penalty kick for a foul on Ryan Manning, which Armstrong converted to put his side 3–0 up. Cédric Kipré scored a header in injury time to give West Brom a consolation goal, but Southampton won 3–1 on aggregate to qualify for the play-off final.^[12]

At the end of the Southampton–West Bromwich Albion game, a section of Southampton supporters came onto the pitch and confronted the West Bromwich supporters. Flares, seats and missiles were thrown between the two sets of fans before police and stewards gained control.^[13] A post-match lap of honour by the Southampton players had to be cancelled due to crowd disturbances.^[14] Three people were arrested, two for going on the pitch and one for assaulting an emergency worker, using threatening behaviour and obstructing/resisting a police officer.^[15]

Match[edit]

Background[edit]

This was Leeds' first play-off final since the 2008 Football League One play-off final against Doncaster Rovers, while this was Southampton's first-ever play-off final.^[17] This saw both of the other relegated teams from the previous Premier League season face-off against each other with both looking for an immediate return to the Premier League. Leeds had also lost the 1987 Football League Second Division play-off final to Charlton Athletic, the 2006 Football League Championship play-off final to Watford, the 2009 Football League One play-off semi-finals to fierce rivals Millwall, and the 2019 EFL Championship play-off semi-finals to Derby County.^[18] Leeds had gone on an 15-match unbeaten run starting with a 3–0 home win over Birmingham City on 1 January 2024 and concluding on 6 April 2024 with a 2–1 away defeat to Coventry City and Southampton went on an 22-match unbeaten run starting with 3–1 home win over Leeds United on 30 September 2023 and ending with a 3–1 away defeat to Bristol City on 13 February 2024.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Crysencio Summerville was Leeds United's leading scorer with 19 goals and Adam Armstrong was Southampton's leading scorer with 21 goals.^[23] During the regular season both meetings ended in Southampton wins, the first a 3–1 win at St Mary's Stadium and the second a final day 2–1 win at Elland Road the latter sealing Ipswich Town's promotion as runners-up to Leicester City.^[24][25] On 19 May 2024, it was announced that Summerville had been named in the EA Sports FC 24 Championship Team of the Season.

This was Daniel Farke's first play-off final having won the EFL Championship title twice with Norwich City in the 2018–19 EFL Championship season and also in the 2020–21 EFL Championship season.

As well as being Leeds United's top goalscorer Crysencio Summerville also won the 2023–24 EFL Championship Player of the Year award and was named in the team of the season alongside Southampton's Kyle Walker-Peters.

This was Southampton manager Russell Martin's second play-off final having played for Wycombe Wanderers in the semi-final against Stockport County in the 2006–07 Football League.

Leeds were allocated 35,796 tickets for the final at the east end of Wembley Stadium.^[26] Southampton were allocated an initial 35,667 tickets on the west side, rising to 36,900 on 22 May 2024.^[27][28] The British Transport Police (BTP) will have an "enhanced policing presence" during to rival fans of Manchester United (who are scheduled to play Manchester derby rivals Manchester City in the 2024 FA Cup final the day before) and Leeds United being around Wembley in the same 24-hour period with the BTP saying "The safety of rail passengers remains the force's top priority and there will be an enhanced policing presence and specialist resources deployed across the rail network throughout that weekend".^[29]

Prime Minster Rishi Sunak will attend the final in his role as a Southampton fan following his attendance at St Mary's for the semi-final second leg against West Brom with Leeds chairman Paraag Marathe attending with other representatives of the San Francisco 49ers with speculation that new part-owner American actor and comedian Will Ferrell might attend.^[30][31]

Coverage[edit]

The match was televised live by Sky Sports on both its Football and Main Event channels and was also available for live streaming on Sky Go and NOW.^[32] BBC Local Radio stations covered the game for each team: BBC Radio Leeds for Leeds United and BBC Radio Solent for Southampton.^[33][34] Talksport provided the national radio commentary with Adrian Durham.^[35]

Summary[edit]

Details[edit]

Leeds United

Southampton

GK 1 Illan Meslier RB 22 Archie Gray CB 14 Joe Rodon CB 4 Ethan Ampadu (c)  90+12' LB 3 Junior Firpo  83' DM 44 Ilia Gruev DM 8 Glen Kamara  73' RW 29 Wilfried Gnonto  66' AM 24 Georginio Rutter LW 10 Crysencio Summerville  43'  74' CF 7 Joël Piroe Substitutes: GK 28 Karl Darlow DF 6 Liam Cooper DF 25 Sam Byram DF 33 Connor Roberts  73' MF 12 Jaidon Anthony  74' MF 17 Jamie Shackleton MF 20 Daniel James  66' FW 30 Joe Gelhardt FW 49 Mateo Joseph  83' Manager: Daniel Farke

GK 1 Alex McCarthy RB 2 Kyle Walker-Peters CB 21 Taylor Harwood-Bellis  51' CB 35 Jan Bednarek  39' LB 5 Jack Stephens (c) CM 16 Will Smallbone CM 4 Flynn Downes  85' CM 7 Joe Aribo  90+12' RF 36 David Brooks  35' CF 9 Adam Armstrong LF 26 Ryan Fraser  45'  70' Substitutes: GK 13 Joe Lumley DF 3 Ryan Manning  83' DF 14 James Bree MF 19 Joe Rothwell MF 20 Kamaldeen Sulemana MF 23 Samuel Edozie  35'  83' MF 24 Shea Charles FW 10 Ché Adams  70'  79' FW 11 Ross Stewart Manager: Russell Martin

References[edit]

External links[edit]