Brentford and Swansea will slug it out for promotion to the Premier League on Saturday as they meet in a Championship play-off remaining value an estimated £180 million ($255 million).
The Wembley showdown is commonly referred to as the richest match in world soccer given the huge rewards on supply to the winners as soon as they attain the Premier League.
After 74 years exterior the English top-flight, retro Brentford are inside touching distance of an surprising berth among the many elite.
In distinction, Swansea are hoping to return to the Premier League after a three-year absence.
It is Brentford’s story that has captured the creativeness of neutrals.
After spending 59 out of 60 seasons in the third or fourth tiers earlier than reaching the Championship in 2014, the Bees have risen nicely above their conventional standing due to progressive proprietor Matthew Benham.
Benham has launched an analytics-influenced strategy overseen by two administrators of soccer, guaranteeing the membership benefit from their assets, that are meagre in comparability with the Championship’s wealthier groups.
It has proved a profitable system as Brentford unearthed gems equivalent to Ollie Watkins, Said Benrahma and Neal Maupay.
Now it’s dynamic striker Ivan Toney, scorer of 32 objectives this season after arriving from Peterborough, who has taken Brentford to the brink of promotion in the primary season in their new stadium.
It would be the west London membership’s second successive Championship play-off remaining after they misplaced to Fulham final season, having defeated Swansea in the semi-finals.
The Bees have did not earn promotion in all 9 of their play-off makes an attempt in the Football League however this could possibly be their 12 months after they staged an exciting fightback to beat Bournemouth 3-2 on mixture in the semi-finals.
Trailing 1-0 from the primary leg, Brentford went 2-0 down on mixture earlier than responding to boss Thomas Frank’s pre-match screening of Liverpool’s well-known 2019 Champions League comeback towards Barcelona with a grand revival of their very own.
Pray and hope
“There’s quite a lot of extraordinary European nights however I believe Liverpool is the one the place we discovered probably the most through the years. I confirmed that to the gamers,” Frank said.
Frank’s team-building philosophy takes inspiration from New Zealand’s All Blacks, while his willingness to think outside the box has led to the employment of a head of set pieces and individual development.
He believes Brentford’s near-miss last term will be a valuable lesson as they prepare for their return to the final.
“The experience of being there last year will help us. We will be unbelievably well-prepared,” he stated. “We’ll give the whole lot and pray and hope.”
Brentford finished third in the Championship, seven points above fourth-placed Swansea, with their regular-season matches both ending in 1-1 draws.
Looking to return to the Premier League for the first time since 2018, Steve Cooper’s side enjoyed a 2-1 aggregate win against Barnsley in the semi-finals.
Ghana forward Andre Ayew produced a superb strike to seal the 1-0 first-leg win at Barnsley.
Ayew is widely reportedly to be the Championship’s highest-paid player and the 31-year-old will be expected to live up to that billing at Wembley.
“We are very happy to be able to have a shot,” Ayew stated. “The metropolis deserves to be in the Premier League and we’re going to do the whole lot to get the membership again there.”
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