The Championship play-offs

With the busy and intense season coming to a close we take at the all-important latter stages with the Championship play-offs. Overviewing how the semi-final legs went, from the results to key player performances with the help of the Sky Sports website.

Tracking the progress of the Championship play-offs can be very important for lots of different factors. Knowing how teams have played, their key performers, and more provides us with more knowledge to make future decisions.

Which teams were involved in the play-offs?

Sunderland, Luton, Middlesbrough and Coventry make up the four teams involved in the play-off semi-finals.

Sunderland v Luton -first leg

The first semi-final came between Sunderland and Luton. Luton struck 11 minutes into the first leg via Elijah Adebayo who scored his seventh goal of the campaign. The goal made it his 11th goal contribution of the campaign

The home side hit back in the 39th minute after a fantastic goal by Manchester United loanee Amad Diallo, supplied by midfielder Alex Pritchard. The equaliser was Diallo’s 13th goal of the season and the assisters 10th attacking return of the campaign.

The third and final goal of the match came from centre-back Trai Hume who was assisted by Jack Clarke. The midfielder has become one of Sunderland’s most important players this season. In fact Clarke has picked up a huge nine goals and 11 assists.

Result – 2-1.

Luton v Sunderland – second leg

Luton came into the second leg knowing they had to beat Sunderland by two goals. After a hectic start to the game centre-back Gabriel Osho scored first. Osho put the tie level in the 10th minute of the game and the home side looked confident.

Sunderland were pushing for another goal and even dominated the majority of the possession. However, Luton struck again in the first half via defenders Tom Lockyer and Alfie Doughty combined to put their side 3-2 up on aggregate and through to the Championship play-off final.

Coventry v Middlesbrough – first leg

Two teams well known for having the leagues highest goal scorers came to blows. Although both sides mustered up a total of 16 shots between them just two hit the target. Both Coventry’s Viktor Gyokeres and Middlesbrough’s Chuba Akpom had quiet games.

To put the above into context, Akpom racked up a monstrous 28 goals and two assists in 38 league games this campaign whilst Gyokeres notched up an impressive 21 goals and 10 assists in his 46 games. Their failure to make an impact meant the game ended in a stalemate.

Result – 0-0

Middlesbrough v Coventry – second leg

Middlesbrough dominated the game in terms of possession but once again, both teams failed to accumulate more than three shots on target in the game. The only goal of the game came from two of Coventry’s most important players.

Midfielder Gustavo Hamer put Coventry ahead in the 57th minute with the help of the instrumental Gyokeres, Hamer, like Gyokeres has also been very key this season, collecting nine goals and 10 assists this campaign.

Middlesbrough failed to get their main man Akpom into the game and even fellow striker Cameron Archer who had bagged 11 goals and six assists this season could not make an impact. The game ended and Coventry progressed to the Championship play-off final.