The promoted team is promoted: After 22 years, Ipswich Town return to the Premier League. A German coach, Danny Röhl, also celebrated on the final matchday of the Championship
For the first time in twelve years, a club has marched through from the third to the first division. Successful coach Kieran McKenna, who was previously assistant coach at Manchester United – with Ralf Rangnick among others – has now led Ipswich Town into the Premier League following their promotion to the Championship.
With a 2-0 win against relegated Huddersfield Town on Saturday, the Tractor Boys secured the second direct promotion place behind Leicester City, who had already been crowned champions. Ipswich, who have a fan friendship with Fortuna Düsseldorf, played attractive soccer right from the start and can now call themselves a first division club for the first time in 22 years. The last time Southampton achieved such a breakthrough was in 2012.
Farke has to play detention with Leeds against Wagner’s Norwich
The victim of the Town fairytale is Leeds United. Last year’s relegated Premier League side had recently squandered their good starting position and became the first club since Sunderland in 1998 to miss out on direct promotion with 90 points (or more). The team led by coach Daniel Farke, who has already been promoted to the Premier League twice, lost 2-1 to Southampton to close the three-point gap to Ipswich.
Leeds go into the play-offs in poor form after their fourth defeat in six games – their opponents in the semi-finals will be Farke’s former club Norwich City, where David Wagner is in charge. Southampton and West Bromwich will face each other in the second semi-final. For Hull, who were still lurking in seventh place, the season is over.
Röhl saves Wednesday – Birmingham in third tier for the first time since 1994
In the basement, Danny Röhl pulled off the miracle with Sheffield Wednesday. The long-time assistant to Hansi Flick, who has just turned 35, took over as head coach at the four-time champions (last time in 1930) for the first time in October and kept them in the league. The traditional club, founded in 1867, had made the worst start to a season in its history as a promoted team and was still nine points behind the drop zone on the first matchday of the second half of the season.
The Röhl team still needed a point at Sunderland to avoid relegation, but in the end Wednesday celebrated a 2-0 victory. While fellow promoted side Plymouth Argyle (1-0 against Hull) and Blackburn Rovers (2-0 at Leicester thanks to top scorer Szmodics) also avoided the drop into third place on Saturday, Birmingham City were the third team to be relegated alongside bottom club Rotherham United and André Breitenreiter’s Huddersfield. The Blues, for whom Wayne Rooney had experienced a miserable coaching interlude this season, did their homework with a 1-0 win over Norwich, but there were no slip-ups from their rivals. As a result, Birmingham are only in third place for the first time since 1994
