Fulham 2-1 Brentford: Fulham return to Premier League

Fulham 2-1 Brentford Fulham return to Premier League
Fulham 2-1 Brentford Fulham return to Premier League

Fulham booked their place in the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Brentford in the Championship playoff earlier today.

Joe Bryan scored twice for the Londoners in extra time to hand them a massive victory.

Brentford will be absolutely devastated to have missed out on promotion after having come this close. They will be wondering what could have been if they had won their final league game.

On the final day of the Championship, Brentford needed a win to secure automatic promotion to the Premier League and their defeat allowed West Brom to secure their Premier League berth.

After having worked hard all season, this will come as a major blow to their morale. They had waited 73 years for this moment but their return to top-flight football will have to wait another year at least. 

It will be interesting to see how Brentford bounce back from this now. Not only will this affect the stature of the club it will damage them financially as well.

Promotion to the Premier League results in hundreds of millions of pounds in extra revenue and Brentford could have used the money in this post-pandemic era. As per reports, winning today’s game would have brought in an extra £170 million and the revenue boost could have reached £300 million if Premier League survival was achieved for a five-year period.

They will now be expected to lose some of their key players like Said Benrahma who will be looking to move on to the Premier League this summer. They are too good for the Championship anyway.

As for Fulham, they showed experience and grit to pull out the result today. Despite struggling to break down Brentford throughout the ninety minutes, they kept at it and were eventually rewarded to two quick-fire goals in added time.

Bryan scored with a 105th-minute freekick and he doubled his tally 12 minutes later. Brentford added a consolation goal deep into injury time but that wasn’t enough in the end.