2020 EFL Championship play-off final
The 2020 EFL Championship play-off final was an association football match which was played on 4 August 2020 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Brentford and Fulham, a West London derby. The match was to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football, to the FA Premier League. The top two teams of the 2019–20 EFL Championship season gained automatic promotion to the Premier League, while the clubs placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-off semi-finals; Brentford ended the season in third position while Fulham finished fourth. The winners of these semi-finals competed for the final place for the 2020–21 season in the Premier League. Cardiff City and Swansea City were the losing semi-finalists.
Wembley Stadium in London hosted the final. | |||||||
| Event | 2019–20 EFL Championship | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| After extra time | |||||||
| Date | 4 August 2020 | ||||||
| Venue | Wembley Stadium, London | ||||||
| Man of the Match | Joe Bryan | ||||||
| Referee | Martin Atkinson | ||||||
| Attendance | 0 | ||||||
Fulham had been relegated to the Championship the previous season while Brentford had not played at the highest level of English league football for 73 years. The 2020 final was played behind closed doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom which had delayed the conclusion of the regular league season by more than three months. Refereed by Martin Atkinson, the game was goalless after 90 minutes, sending it into extra time. Fulham's Joe Bryan scored the opening goal in the 105th minute with a long-range free kick and doubled the lead twelve minutes later after build-up play with the league top scorer Aleksandar Mitrović who had come on as a substitute. Henrik Dalsgaard scored an injury-time consolation goal for Brentford as the match ended 2–1 to Fulham, seeing them return to the Premier League on their first attempt.