Aston Villa vs Derby: Villains survive nervy finale to edge Derby in Championship play-off final and clinch promotion to Premier League
Follow all the action live from Wembley
Sign up to Miguel Delaney’s Reading the Game newsletter sent straight to your inbox for free
Sign up to Miguel’s Delaney’s free weekly newsletter
Follow live action from the Championship play-off final at Wembley as Aston Villa and Derby chase a golden opportunity to achieve promotion to the Premier League.
After a tense start, Anwar El Ghazi gave Villa the lead with a diving header on the stroke of half-time, courtesy of a fine cross from Ahemd Elmohamady. John McGinn then doubled Dean Smith’s side’s lead, outleaping Derby keeper Kelle Roos to put Villa firmly on course for victory.
But Martyn Waghorn sparked a Rams’ fightback, diverting Jack Marriot’s shot into the bottom corner with just under ten minutes to play. Yet despite a nerve-riddled finale, Villa held on to clinch promotion to the Premier League.
Please allow a moment for the blog to load.
Welcome to Independent Football's live coverage of Aston Villa vs Derby County.
The promised land of the Premier League could be just 90 minutes away for these sides.
Villa have the chance for redemption after losing last year's play-off final vs Fulham.
We'll have all the live build-up to the game at Wembley.
No VAR
A reminder that the EFL decided that technology will not be in use during this afternoon's match.
Let's hope there's no costly refereeing mistakes.
Team news
Ashley Cole starts at left-back for Derby as Aston Villa bring in Albert Adomah for Andre Green.
Aston Villa need Premier League football to be relevant again
Aston Villa forward Juan Pablo Angel believes the club must return to the Premier League by beating Derby this afternoon or risk being forgotten in history.
"The biggest challenge for Villa is not only to go back to the Premier League, but to start being relevant again in the sport," said Angel, who became their record signing when joining from Argentinian club River Plate in a £9.5 deal in January 2001.
"People who understand the history of the club appreciate what they've got.
"But in order to keep up to date, you've got to keep winning and be relevant in the modern game.
"It is very easy to become irrelevant quickly and for people to forget about you. You have to be in the Premier League and make noise when you are there.
"They have to create a project that attracts younger players from around the world and play the type of football that everybody wants to watch - the DNA of Aston Villa's history." (PA)
How much is winning the play-off final really worth?
£80m, £90m or £100m?
The answer is actually closer to £170m, according to Deloitte's Sports Business Group.
The additional revenue will accumulate over the following three season after winning the play-off final, even if the winning team is relegated next season.
Aston Villa or Derby will benefit from around £95m in increased revenue, primarily from broadcast and commercial income. Parachute payments, should they be immediately relegated, will be worth close to £75m over the following two seasons.
Lampard's future
So, where will Frank Lampard's future lie after this afternoon's match?
The former Chelsea midfielder has been linked to a return to Stamford Bridge should Maurizio Sarri depart this summer, but Lampard is not letting any talk of what happens next cloud his preparation for today.
"I've got two years left on my contract here and I see no further forward than Monday.
"I will sit down with Mel after the game, which was planned before all this talk anyway, to see firstly what the result was on Monday because that's going to define how we chat.
"It's as simple as that. I find it quite difficult because they (Chelsea) have a game coming up - more importantly for me we have a game coming up before that."
"And also they have a manager in Sarri who is trying to get them to win that final.
"It's been a bit of an obvious link all season. If I say it's maybe because of where we're at - in the final - and we're being talked about and I get linked because of my 13 years at the club, then I understand the link.
"But in terms of how I'm seeing it, I don't want to think about it, I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about Monday, I want to work with the team and get this over the line for us."
Can Grealish make the difference?
On his fourth Wembley appearance for Aston Villa, Jack Grealish will hope to finally be able to lift a trophy for his boyhood club.
Grealish played in Villa's semi-final win against Liverpool in the 2015 FA Cup semi-final and was on the pitch for their defeat against Arsenal in the final.
Last season he was impressive in the play-off final against Fulham, but was a touch unfortunate to be on the losing side.
The influential midfielder missed a large spell during the middle of this campaign, but returned to the side and propelled them into the top six and a second play-off final in two years.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies