In the finals of the Championship playoffs, Aston Villa defeated Derby County with 2-1, and got back into the Premier League. In the most expensive game of sports, the former European champions were better than Derby, after almost 100 minutes of an exhausting and fierce battle. Villa is back in the top tier of English football after three years, and they will receive around £170 million for doing the same.
In front of more than 90,000 spectators at Wembley, both sides gave 100% of their abilities.
"A fallen giant is back on its feet" @AVFCOfficial are a Premier League club once again
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— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) May 27, 2019
Aston Villa took the lead one minute before the end of the first half. Ahmed Elmohamady centered the ball in the box, where Anwar El-Ghazi managed to outrebound Derby’s defenders and to place the ball behind the goalkeeper Kelle Roos. It was a shocker for Derby which was felt in the first half of the second half.
The Rams were a bit dazzled in the opening part of the latter 45 minutes, and Villa used that. It was the 59th minute of the match when John McGinn used a massive mistake of Derby’s defense and their goalkeeper. Roos misjudged the path of one deflected cross which went high, and McGinn used the messy situation in the goalkeeper area, heading the ball in the net for 2-0.
Derby started to be more aggressive, and they had one solid strike in the 77th minute when Jack Marriott sent the ball beside the goal.
Just four minutes later, the section in which the Rams’ fans were located erupted. Marriott scored this time, making a precise shot which ended in the lower right corner of Villa’s goal. Lampard’s boys tried to level the score until the end, but even 7 minutes of injury time wasn’t enough.
With this match, the season of football in England is over.
