The most expensive match on the Island - Brentford or Fulham

Leeds and VBA previously secured entry to the Premier League, and the third traveler to the elite rank will be known tonight - London rivals Brentford and Fulham meet in the final of the Championship playoffs at "Wembley" (20.45:XNUMX p.m.).

The Island Championship playoff final is known as the most expensive football match. And for a reason. Namely, in addition to placing in the Premier League, the winner of this duel receives 170 million pounds from the Association. At a time when, due to the coronavirus, clubs are experiencing large losses, the sum of 170 million would help the winner of the match to overcome the current situation more easily. Because of this, both "bees" and "hummingbirds" will have more motivation to try to reach the Premier League.

And Brentford has been waiting for the Premier League since 1947. From then until today, the club has lived between the second and fourth tier of English football. In the fourth tier, the popular League 2, the west London club was last in 2009. Then he entered League 1, to become a member of the Championship six years ago, where he regularly finished in the upper half of the table, but without a chance to reach the playoffs. A step forward was made this season, when Thomas Frank's boys broke through all barriers and came within a step of the dream of many generations. Admittedly, they were able to realize that dream in the regular part as well - after the restart of the season, they achieved seven consecutive victories and had the opportunity to overtake VBA in the second position in the last two rounds. However, they did not succeed, losing to Stoke and Barnsley in the final, thus missing the chance to directly enter the Premier League. By the way, against Barnsley, the team played its last match at "Griffin Park" - after 116 years, Brentford is moving from that field and from the next season it will play matches at the new "Community Stadium".

The fact that they have the second best defense this season (conceived 40 goals, only Leeds conceded less - 35), and that the attack is the most efficient in the league, tells what kind of team they are. "Bees" scored 80 goals in the regular part, and the BMW trio - Benrahma, Mbeumo and Watkins - led the way. Young Ollie Watkins is one of the most talented English players, he is the second top scorer in the league with 25 goals and experts predict a good career for him.

Unlike Brentford, Fulham last played in the Premier League in the 2018/2019 season. And then the team from London (also from the west, but closer to the center of the big city) reached the elite through the playoff final. Slaviša Jokanović sat on the bench, and in the final at "Wembley" on May 26, 2018, Aston Villa was defeated. However, despite huge investments and frequent rotations on the bench (Jokanović was succeeded by Claudio Ranieri, and Ranieri by Scott Parker), the team from London returned to the Championship after only one season.

Although he was relegated to the Championship with the team, Scott Parker remained the manager. The job at Fulham is his first challenge in his managerial career, and he has been doing well this season. From the very start, "Kolibari" were considered a team that could reach the Premier League, and on the wings of Aleksandar Mitrović, the league's best player and scorer (26 goals), they came to a situation where they were still 90 away from achieving their goal, or in in case of overtime, 120 minutes.

Ahead of the most important match of the season, the biggest uncertainty in the ranks of Fulham is precisely the performance of Mitrović, who missed the semi-final with Cardiff due to injury, but Parker announced at the press conference yesterday that the striker will grit his teeth and run to the "Wembley" field.

Because it's not every day a match is played to enter the Premier League and 170 million pounds.