Birmingham received an inspirational pep talk from NFL great Tom Brady before a last-gasp victory against Leeds that boss John Eustace dedicated to the late Trevor Francis.
A sold-out St Andrew’s celebrated the club’s greatest ever player and an exciting future under new ownership as Daniel Farke’s relegated side came to the second city.
It is a month since American businessman Tom Wagner completed his takeover at Birmingham, who nine days ago saw seven-time Super Bowl winner Brady join as minority owner.
The former NFL star enjoyed a memorable first trip to St Andrew’s, visiting a local pub before meeting the players and watching a 1-0 stoppage-time win.
“The new owners came into the dressing room just as I was coming out and congratulated the lads,” Blues boss Eustace said. “It’s great to see Tom Brady in there as well.
“Tom spoke to the group before our meeting today, so that is great to have one of the most famous sporting people in the world come down and chat to the group.
“They were all very excited to listen to him and he gave us some real good words of advice.
“I think you can see today his presence at the club (is a benefit), the vision that he’s got for the football club is amazing.
“He wants this football club to be a world brand, he wants this Birmingham City family now all over the world, which is what we all want.
“We want this magnificent football club to grow and get better and be known all around the world.
“We’ve got a great person to come in and do that.”
Substitute Lukas Jutkiewicz’s stoppage-time penalty was the difference at the end of a tense match that began with a heartfelt tribute to Birmingham great Francis following his death in July.
“I’m delighted with the performance for the whole game,” Eustace said. “We dedicate that winner to Trevor Francis and his family. I think it marked a real special occasion.
“The boys today were outstanding with and without the ball.
“Tactically you have to be spot on against an excellent Leeds team and I think the level of concentration and the way the boys went about their business today was superb.”
Leeds counterpart Daniel Farke felt like a point would have been deserved from Saturday’s performance at St Andrew’s where the relegated side’s shortcomings were obvious.
“(This job) is exactly what I would have expected because I have been in the situation before,” the Leeds boss said.
“I know after relegation it’s never easy for the club. There is a hangover.
“It’s more like you’re getting used to having disappointing results (when relegated), there’s always question marks especially in the first transfer window.
“What makes it a bit different is the situation with the contract. We spoke quite openly about it, that there are exit clauses that makes the situation obviously also quite difficult.
“But I knew this before and, yeah, my decision for this massive club was really with full commitment and also totally convinced that we can lead the club in the middle and long term to success.
“We knew that the start would be bumpy and would be tricky and it’s not the easiest shop at the moment, but I mentioned before if it would be it would be easy everyone could do this and it wouldn’t be that much fun to turn our fate around.
“I know that it’s a hell of a task. I said this even in my first press conference and especially during August we have to be a bit patient.”
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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