Sunderland’s Premier League dream remained alive after they clinched a play-off place on the final day of the season, scoring three times inside 11 minutes to beat Preston 3-0 at Deepdale.
Goals from Amad Diallo, Alex Pritchard and Jack Clarke did the trick on a day to remember.
The Black Cats needed results elsewhere to go their way and Millwall’s failure to win saw them sneak into the top six; Tony Mowbray’s side will now face Luton over two legs for a place at Wembley.
If they manage to go up, they will become just the fourth side to achieve back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.
Sunderland travelled to Lancashire unbeaten in eight games and, despite the odds being stacked against them, they sold out the away end with their fans being by far the loudest of both sets of supporters.
However, the electric atmosphere did not seem to transfer onto the pitch, with the Black Cats looking nervy from the off, and Preston took advantage with multiple crosses into the box but without being able to score.
The visitors responded, with a curling shot from the edge of the box from Patrick Roberts heading for the top corner until it was denied by a superb save from Freddie Woodman.
Just before the break, Preston had the best chance of the first period, with striker Liam Delap, on loan from Manchester City, latching onto a through ball and finding himself one-on-one but he was only able to drag his shot wide.
Both sides will have felt they should have been ahead at half-time and could have come to rue their missed chances.
Sunderland came out in the second half with a lot more intensity, knowing they needed to score to have any chance of securing the final play-off berth.
They looked dangerous and eventually took the lead through Manchester United loanee Diallo, who perfectly placed the ball into the top left-hand corner.
It was very much end-to-end from then on and if it had not been for a goal-line clearance, Preston would have equalised from a corner.
The Black Cats eventually doubled their lead with the ball falling for midfielder Pritchard on the edge of the box and he made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
The visiting supporters drowned out every other noise in the ground and it spurred the players on to grab a third, Clarke creating space on the right-hand side and slotting the ball past Woodman.
Sunderland’s players remained calm and did all they could to run down the clock, while their fans only became louder as they heard the news of Blackburn’s impending victory over Millwall before the full-time whistle sent them into a frenzy.
'It will happen in a year, two years' - Ronaldo hints at retirement date
Cristiano Ronaldo says it will be one or two years before he retires from football as he aims to enjoy the end of his career.
The 39-year-old scored twice on Friday, including a stunning overhead kick, as Portugal cruised past Poland 5-1 in the Nations League, to clinch top spot of Group A1.
Overall, Ronaldo has now netted 910 times in his career, with 135 of those coming for Portugal, including five goals in five Nations League appearances this campaign.
Ronaldo has dropped hints in recent months though that his retirement is drawing closer, with his 40th birthday coming up in February, and he says his main goal is to enjoy playing football while he still can.
"Planning the retirement of football... It will happen in a year, two years, I don't know," Ronaldo said.
"I say honestly, it's not a joke, it's enjoying the moment, feeling that I'm enjoying football. Get up and go to training and to the game motivated.
"When I don't feel that, I'll step forward and say, 'I can't do it anymore.' It's an excellent career, I haven't felt it yet."
He was a standout once again for Portugal as he finished the match against Poland with a game-high 2.06 expected goals (xG), generated from five shots, the most of any player on the pitch.
Ronaldo hit the 900-goal mark in September, with many believing he would next be targeting 1,000 as another goal in his storied career.
The forward has scored 10 more goals since then but insisted he was not actively thinking about making it to four figures.
"If you ask me if I want to reach a thousand goals... It's normal to want it. But I don't think about it," he added.
"Think game by game. In three months, I will be 40 years old. It's about taking it easy and enjoying.
"That's what I've been doing, especially in the national team, which is where I like to play the most. I like to play for the national team, and I really enjoy coming here. Scoring goals and good performances helps too.
"Day by day. Enjoy goal after goal. Enjoy the moment. The thousand goals don't matter to me at all, honestly."
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).
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