With two red cards and six goals in one thriller, Derby County and Leeds United gave us a beauty in the second leg of their Football League Championship promotion playoffs semifinal second leg on Wednesday.
Frank Lampard’s Derby emerged victorious with a 4-2 win in the leg, 4-3 on aggregate, as Leeds went crashing out of the playoffs.
It had to feel delightful times two for Lampard, who discovered Leeds was spying on his Rams before a match in January.
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Derby will meet Aston Villa at Wembley Stadium on May 27 in a match full of subplots, including Lampard matching wits with Aston Villa assistant and former Chelsea teammate John Terry.
Jack Marriott scored twice, with Chelsea loanee Mason Mount and Liverpool man Harry Wilson also scoring for the Rams.
Stuart Dallas scored a pair of goals for Leeds.Derby are the first team in Championship playoff history to progress to the final having lost the first leg at home.
Frank Lampard’s side pull off the impossible. 🐏
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 15, 2019
Gaetano Berardi was sent off with 12 minutes to play in the first 90 minutes, his side down 3-2 on the day.
Leeds entered the game with a 1-0 lead, and doubled its advantage through Dallas’ first goal of the match.
But Derby scored in the final minute of the first half and the first minute of the second, with Marriott and Mount getting on the score sheet. The former of the two goals also included very poor goalkeeping from one-time Real Madrid man Kiko Casilla.
Berardi saw his second yellow card in the 78th minute for a wayward, late slide tackle.
Liverpool man Harry Wilson nearly had it 4-2 with a chipped finish off the post before Marriott used a classy finish to deliver the score line. Derby’s Scott Malone then saw his second yellow as the match finished 10v10.