Coventry claimed a final-day point to clinch a Sky Bet Championship play-off place after earning a 1-1 draw at Middlesbrough – who they will now meet in the two-legged semi-final.
On a dramatic day in the promotion race, Boro and Coventry finished fourth and fifth respectively to keep their dreams of a Premier League return alive.
They will now meet again on Sunday, May 14 at the Coventry Building Society Arena before returning to the Riverside for the second leg on Wednesday, May 17.
Coventry, who knew they needed to avoid defeat to stay in the play-off zone, secured the lead in the 22nd minute through Gustavo Hamer’s clinical strike.
But in stoppage-time at the end of the first half Cameron Archer hit his 11th of the season to level things up to raise some nerves among the home supporters.
While Coventry fans, whose side were relegated from the top-flight in 2001, prayed Middlesbrough would not score again just in case it mattered, the key result at Millwall went in their favour and they were left celebrating.
With Middlesbrough’s play-off place already assured, this was more about whether Michael Carrick’s men could do anything to affect the battle for the remaining two spots up for grabs.
Sky Blues boss Mark Robins, who named an unchanged side, knew they needed at least a point to guarantee their own place and played with the confidence of a side which had lost just one of their last 16 games.
Coventry were quick to make their intentions clear. Within two minutes of the first whistle Hamer had already forced goalkeeper Zack Steffen into a strong save.
Steffen did well to turn behind the Brazilian’s low drive with his leg after he had been played in down the right.
Josh Eccles was next to go close for the visitors. He was afforded too much space deep in the final third so carried and then drilled a yard wide of the left-hand post from 22 yards.
And after a period of toing and froing, with much of the play outside both boxes during that spell, Coventry took the lead.
Hamer was again in the thick of things. He was picked out in space and instead of going himself he tried to play in Viktor Gyokeres.
The ball bounced off the striker and fell invitingly for Hamer to control and then power an unstoppable drive inside the bottom right corner of Steffen’s net.
After that Coventry chased everything, closing down the men in red shirts, but just when it looked like they might get to half-time in front Archer struck.
Alex Mowatt’s first-time shot from Riley McGree’s run and pass actually hit Archer, who then quickly instinctively turned and hammered high into the top left corner of Ben Wilson’s goal from six yards.
After the restart Middlesbrough had more of the ball without really testing the goalkeeper, with Coventry more reserved than in the previous half.
McGree, who had already had a couple of half chances, was the most creative Middlesbrough man and he curled an effort into the arms of Wilson from 18 yards.
With news filtering through of Sunderland’s goals, Coventry pushed forward more. Kyle McFadzean had an opportunity from a corner but he headed over from eight yards in a crowded box.
But events at Millwall, where Blackburn won, meant Coventry and Sunderland had joined Middlesbrough and Luton in the play-off spots to battle it out for a Wembley appearance.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
Real Madrid hit Twente for seven, five-star Wolfsburg also win big
Real Madrid had six different goalscorers as they trounced Twente 7-0 in the Women's Champions League on Wednesday, while Wolfsburg beat Galatasaray 5-0.
Signe Bruun opened the scoring three minutes into the Group B encounter at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano, then Maria Mendez's header gave Madrid a 2-0 half-time lead.
Madrid, who had won one and lost one of their opening two games in the tournament, got a third through Naomie Feller five minutes into the second half, then Caroline Weir made it 4-0 with a brilliant free-kick.
Mendez headed home her second of the encounter shortly after the hour mark, while Oihane Hernandez and Carla Camacho got on the scoresheet late on to complete the rout.
The victory took Madrid second in the Group B standings ahead of Chelsea's trip to Celtic.
Wolfsburg were also convincing victors in Group A, getting off the mark for this season's competition as Rebecka Blomqvist scored a hat-trick in their 5-0 thrashing of Galatasaray.
The Bundesliga side – who failed to pick up a point or score a goal in their opening two matches – had a narrow 1-0 lead at half-time through Joelle Wedemeyer, before Blomqvist took centre-stage in the second period.
She tapped home after Janina Minge struck the crossbar, then added her second goal in the 77th minute and her third six minutes into stoppage time.
Vivien Endemann powered home a fifth for Wolfsburg one minute later, as they provisionally moved within three points of Lyon and Roma ahead of their meeting.
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