Fulham promoted to the Premier League
Fulham have made an immediate return to the Premier League after their 2-1 win over West London rivals Brentford in the Championship playoff final.
With their being nothing between the two sides after 90 minutes, Joe Bryan’s brace in extra time was enough to send the Cottagers to the top flight. Henrik Dalsgaard got one back for the Bees at the death but ultimately it wasn’t enough and it sees Brentford setting a new Football League record of nine playoff campaign defeats.
Thomas Frank went with a 4-3-3 formation with David Raya in goal, Dalsgaard, Pontus Jansson, Ethan Pinnock and Rico Henry in the back line. Josh Dasilva, Christian Norgaard and Mathias Jensen made up the midfield and the infamous BMW front-three of Said Benrahma, Bryan Mbeumo and Ollie Watkins led the line.
For Scott Parker’s side it was a 4-2-3-1 with Marek Rodak started in-between the sticks, Bryan, Tim Ream, Michael Hector and Denis Odoi in the defence. Tom Cairney and Harrison Reed were holding midfielders. with Neeskens Kebano, Josh Onomah and Bobby Decordova-Reid in behind Aboubakar Kamara as the lone striker.
It went the distance at Wembley after neither side found the net in normal time. On the stroke of half time in extra time, quick thinking from left-back Joe Bryan gave Fulham the lead after his free kick from 40 yards out caught Bees keeper Raya napping.
With three minutes from time, Bryan sealed the deal for Fulham after he combined well with Aleksandar Mitrovic and put his shot past Raya into the bottom corner.
Brentford were able to salvage a consolation in the fourth minute of added time when Henrik Dalsgaard headed home past Rodak from eight yards, but it was too late for Thomas Frank’s side to make a comeback.
The win sees Fulham return to the Premier League at the first time of asking and it’s their second playoff final victory in three seasons – their first coming in 2018 where they beat Aston Villa 1-0.
