© EuroFootball.com
On Saturday, the playoffs of the English second league "Championship" started, often referred to as a "horror thriller", where four clubs are fighting for the last ticket to one of the strongest World leagues - the "Premiership".
In the first matches, an important victory was achieved by the third remaining "Derby" team, who defeated "Southampton" 2-1 on Saturday, who finished the regular season in sixth place.
"Southampton" 1 - 2 "Derby" 7` [1 - 0] Andrew Surman 36` [1 - 1] Steve Howard 58` [1 - 2] Steve Howard (penalty)
Although the hosts took the lead at the beginning of the match, when Andrew Surman scored from long range, Steve Howard equalized the score with a header ten minutes before the end of the first half.
In front of more than thirty thousand spectators, the same S. Howard successfully converted an 11-meter penalty in the middle of the second half, which was given for a foul by Pele on Stephen Pearson.
The match could have ended with a completely different result, as the ball hit the goalposts three times: Marek Saganowski hit the crossbar twice for "Southampton", while Jonas Macken hit the goalpost once for "Derby".
The other semi-final match is being played today (Sunday) - the fifth remaining "Wolverhampton" hosts the fourth remaining "WBA" club. The second leg matches will be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, with the final taking place on May 28, a Monday.
According to experts' calculations, a ticket to the English "Premier" league is worth about 60 million pounds sterling. All "Premier" league clubs receive at least 30 million pounds sterling for television broadcasting rights, and clubs can earn up to ten million pounds sterling from advertising contracts and match tickets. Interestingly, even the clubs that drop out of the "Premier" league receive eleven million pounds sterling for two consecutive years.
