The Den is ready. Millwall and Hull City meet in the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final tonight, kick-off 8pm BST, with everything still to play for and a Wembley final waiting at the end of it. One of these clubs is 90 minutes — or less, or more — away from the biggest match of their season.
A place in the Championship play-off final at Wembley. That's it. That's the whole brief. Win and you're one game from the Premier League. Lose and the summer starts early.
For Millwall, it's a home second leg — the noise at The Den on a night like this is its own kind of pressure on the visitors. Gary Rowett's side know how to make this ground hostile. Hull City, travelling down from East Yorkshire, will need to be organised, clinical, and ready for everything the home crowd throws at them.
The first leg has already been played, and both sides have had their moments in this semi-final — but the aggregate picture remains tight enough that neither club can afford to switch off for a second tonight. Championship play-off football at this stage doesn't do comfortable margins for long.
The second leg is live from The Den, with the Guardian carrying a live blog from kick-off. Full match details, including the first-leg scoreline and any second-leg goals, will be confirmed as the evening develops — according to The Guardian's live coverage, the tie was still in the balance heading into tonight's match.
Promotion via the play-offs is the most dramatic route into the top flight English football has — and for clubs at Championship level, it's also the most lucrative single match in world football by some distance. The winner of this tie doesn't just get Wembley. They get a shot at changing the entire trajectory of their club.
Millwall haven't played in the Premier League since 1988. Hull City were last there in 2017. For both sets of supporters, tonight isn't just a match. It's a referendum on where their club is heading.
The Den rarely needs an occasion to be loud. Tonight, it has one.
The Den is ready. Millwall and Hull City meet in the second leg of their Championship play-off semi-final tonight, kick-off 8pm BST, with everything still to play for and a Wembley final waiting at the end of it.
Fontes
The Guardian — Football
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Dave Challinor is not a man given to hyperbole. So when Stockport County's manager calls being one game from the Championship amazing, take him at his word — because the journey that got them here is
