The 2019/2020 English Premier League season came to an exhilirating end today as football giants, Manchester United and Chelsea beat Leicester City and Wolves respectively to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
United needed a win or draw to qualify for the champions league after drawing last time out against a resilent West Ham side. While Chelsea needed just a draw to pull through to next season’s elite European competition.
Man United started with it’s usual line up, Bruno Fernandes and Pogba manning the midfield with Nigeria’s Odion Ighalo reduced to a bench role once again. Kelechi Iheanacho started alongside Jamie Vardy for Leicester City as they aimed to pressure United’s fragile defence, and Leicester City sure looked the most assured out of both teams at the start of the match.
The first half was filled with nervy moments but still ended 0-0 with both coaches wary that all it could take to miss out on next season’s competition could be just a silly mistake.
The Reds finished a tight first half on top and Rashford come close with a side-footed shot that went over the cross bar, after a spinning ball by Pogba deceived James Justin.
Pogba was beginning to dictate things and he played Anthony Martial through, only for his shot to be deflected for a corner, and, from the resultant set-piece, Rashford came close with a fizzing effort in the box that produced a save out of Kasper Schmeichel.
The second period started much as the first ended and the Reds came close to slipping Martial in on several occasion, yet good defending denied the visitors a significant chance.
As the match headed closer to a nervy finish, the Reds were awarded a penalty when a mixture of Wes Morgan and Evans brought down Martial in the box, although it was the latter who was adjudged to have committed the offence and was booked.
After a significant VAR delay, it was Fernandes who stepped up to score past Schmeichel.
Leicester continued to push but United held firm denying any opposition chances. In stoppage time, Evans was sent off in injury-time lunging tackle on Scott McTominay,
At the last minute, Lingard scored when he capitalised on a mistake by Schmeichel, dispossessing the goalkeeper to score into an empty net .
Chelsea showed that superiority under club legend, Frank Lampard was a possibility with a convincing 2-0 win over Wolves on Sunday
Goals from Giroud and Mason Mount hepped the London club secure Champions league football, an unsure prospect at the beginning of the season under Lampard.
Chelsea started with Caballero, defensive lime up of Azpilicueta, Zouma, Rudiger, and James, a midfield trio of Jorginho, Kovacic and Alonso, and a mobile front three of Pulisic, Giroud, Mount.
Rivals Wolves started with goalkeeper Patricio, defenders Boly, Coady, Saiss, and Doherty, Portuguese midfielder Neves controlled things from the start alongside Dendoncker, Jonny and Neto while the frontline had Jimenez and Jota.
In the first half, Mason Mount, rose to the occasion against Wolves, carving open a tight game with a glorious free-kick before sending Olivier Giroud through to settle the match just before half-time.
There was much to admire about the way that Mount fed Giroud at the end of a move sparked by Christian Pulisic, a signing that has transformed the club.
Giroud rounded Rui Patrício, the Wolves goalkeeper, to make it 2-0 and settle the contest leaving Wolves with no chance.
Congrats to both clubs.
