At Portman Road Stadium, the fourth official on the sidelines held up the board for 3 minutes of added time.
The match between Ipswich and Birmingham had entered injury time, with the score tied at 1-1.
In the 91st minute of the second half, Birmingham, who had already pinned the home team in their own half, was frantically besieging the opponent's goal.
As Birmingham's shot was blocked out of bounds by the opponent, Birmingham earned their 12th corner kick of the match. Birmingham, except for their goalkeeper and one full-back, sent everyone forward!
Wallace sent the ball towards the far post!
Ipswich's Konsa cleared with a header!
However, the ball was not headed far, and Swift intercepted it in the penalty area, taking a direct shot at the far corner!
Balcombe's vision was obstructed, and by the time he saw the ball flying over, it was too late!
1-2!!! The scene of Cambridge United's last-minute winner a few days ago was reenacted by Birmingham!
After 43 rounds of the League, Birmingham continued to hold second place in the standings with 81 points, while Cambridge United relentlessly pursued with 79 points!
In the next round, the two teams will directly clash at St. Andrews Park!
The suspense of this season's EFL Championship runner-up will be revealed in the next round! Although its influence cannot be compared with the Premier League, as a secondary League with annual broadcasting fees exceeding 100 million pounds, the EFL Championship also holds a very significant position in the British media.
On the eve of the weekend, analytical reports on the champions of this season's Premier League and EFL Championship occupied the front pages of major media outlets.
This season's Champions League spots in the Premier League had lost their suspense early, with four rounds remaining in the League. Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Manchester United advanced to next season's Champions League with absolute dominance.
Fifth-placed Everton is currently a full 9 points behind fourth-placed Arsenal and can only participate in next season's Europa League.
What excited the media was that, apart from Arsenal, the point difference among the top three in the League was only 4 points!
Moreover, League leaders Manchester United had played one more game than Liverpool and two more games than Chelsea!
Such a close title race provided ample topics for the media, with a large number of analytical reports on the champion's ownership almost every week after the games concluded.
To make their reports stand out, some media outlets began to shift their focus to the EFL Championship.
Since Wolves currently led Birmingham by as many as 6 points, with only 3 rounds remaining in the League, it was clear that McCarthy's team had a high probability of securing the championship.
Thus, all the EFL Championship's focus appeared on the battle for the runner-up position between Birmingham and Cambridge United.
Cambridge United, promoting one League per year, a club acquired by a Chinese, the only club chairman currently serving as the team's Head Coach in the British League...
It was then that the British media discovered that this obscure little club actually had so many topics to report on!
Any of these topics could be a feature report! Cambridge United was simply a treasure trove of material for the media!
This issue of "442" magazine's EFL Championship report focused on the ownership of the EFL Championship champion and runner-up.
The report thoughtfully listed the points of the three teams this season and the opponents for their remaining 3 matches.
After an analysis, the situations of both teams were quite similar.
Birmingham's next three matches are at home against Cambridge United and Preston, and an away game against Reading.
Apart from Cambridge United, Reading is ranked sixth and Preston is ranked eighth.
And Cambridge United, besides directly facing Birmingham, will face Sheffield Wednesday, ranked fifth, and Blackpool, ranked eighteenth.
Currently, Cambridge United is still 2 points behind Birmingham, so in the media's poll for the EFL Championship runner-up, Cambridge United only received 40% of the votes.
Clearly, most people believed that perhaps the promotion play-offs were Cambridge United's best option.
Huang Hao had no time to care about these. In his words, even if they faced Wolves in all three remaining rounds, they would have to take them on one by one. No matter how strong the opponent, could they be stronger than Manchester United and Manchester City?
However, Huang Hao truly dared not be careless about the upcoming match against Birmingham.
The painful memory of being rubbed on the ground by Phillips in the first leg encounter was still vivid.
Kevin Phillips, this 35-year-old veteran, had scored 12 goals in the EFL Championship this season, not many, but each one crucial.
Birmingham's transfer deal, worth only 900,000 pounds, made Huang Hao envious to tears!
Huang Hao was reviewing Birmingham's analysis report, compiled by the team's tactical scout, which detailed player characteristics and an analysis of the team's overall playing style.
Birmingham's recent tactical formations, goals scored/conceded;
Birmingham's opponents' formations, goals scored/conceded;
Analysis of Birmingham's players in each position, and comparison with Barnet's players;
Birmingham's team-wide passing success rate, shooting success rate, tackling success rate, crossing success rate, etc., a full dozen pages of analysis report!
All of this was thanks to the silent but elite data analysis team behind Huang Hao, comparable to those of top clubs.
This think tank, composed of a technical director, tactical scouts, and data analysts, Huang Hao had planned and built step by step since the League One era. Today, it had become a sharp weapon for Cambridge United to win victories.
Leave professional matters to professionals. Huang Hao had never entertained any crooked ideas about saving costs on the club's staffing. Without such an excellent team, without data analysis reports before each match that almost listed the opponents' family information, Huang Hao would simply be unable to strategize and win from afar!
Watching the analysis of Birmingham, Huang Hao sometimes frowned deeply, sometimes showed joy, and various counter-strategies slowly emerged in his mind.
When Huang Hao finally focused his gaze on Birmingham's projected starting lineup, his slightly sore eyes suddenly lit up!
Huang Hao suddenly discovered that, apart from captain Roger Johnson, almost all the players in Birmingham's squad this season had just joined Birmingham this season!
This meant that, in a short period, things like team honors and the Blues (Birmingham's nickname) dream were far less valuable in their eyes than a generous contract!
Slowly, a bold idea emerged in Huang Hao's mind: perhaps not everyone wanted to go to the Premier League!
For a team, the Premier League meant huge broadcasting revenue and wealth. But for players, especially some whose abilities could not match the highest level League, it meant being a substitute, or even being swept out.
After Birmingham's relegation, their income from selling players reached 50 million pounds! This season's expenditure on acquiring players was only 20 million pounds. This alone proved that the current players' strength had clearly dropped a level compared to the players they had in the Premier League then.
However, the high weekly wage of 725,000 pounds greatly stimulated this group of mercenaries who had newly joined Birmingham.
Under the tutelage of Scottish Head Coach McLeish, they still delivered a very good performance this season.
And once they were promoted to the Premier League, the current harmonious situation was very likely to fall apart.
Players who performed well were often attracted by better conditions from bigger clubs, seeking greener pastures.
And mediocre players might face a clear-out, no longer able to secure such lucrative contracts.
Conflicts would then erupt at this time.
Perhaps, this was Cambridge United's biggest advantage in this match!
Because in Cambridge United, there was a group of ambitious, hot-blooded young men determined to reach the Premier League!
On April 17th, after the team finished training, they gathered as usual in Cambridge United's tactical analysis room.
The day before each match, participating in tactical analysis and discussion had become a regular pre-match routine for the team.
After finishing the tactical analysis and reviewing their own conceded goals, the final image on the projector stopped on Kevin Phillips.
Huang Hao rose from his seat, walked to the screen, and pointed to Phillips,
“Suxi, do you remember this person?”
Suxi nodded vigorously.
“Tomorrow, everyone has two tasks.”
“First, with the fiercest defense, let Birmingham's guys witness Cambridge United's tough guys. If we can scare a few into wetting themselves, all the better!”
“No broken legs! Cambridge United has never had such fouls, and I don't want to see them tomorrow.” Fearing that these young men, in their excitement, might lose control of their intensity, Huang Hao quickly warned the players.
“I believe you are already familiar with this, so I won't say much more.”
The players' mouths curved slightly upward at Huang Hao's words. This kind of rogue approach was not new for Cambridge United.
“The second, and most important, thing. Suxi, tomorrow you stick to Phillips! Don't leave him for a moment! If you can follow him into the opponent's locker room at halftime, even better!”
Huang Hao's serious yet humorous words once again made the players burst into laughter. “Kante, if Suxi can't handle it, you go too!”
Kante nodded, accepting the task.
“Perhaps you might think this 35-year-old veteran isn't worth us putting so much effort into. Even when facing Tottenham, I didn't ask you to do this, right?”
Huang Hao held absolute authority at Cambridge United, so the players always just executed, never questioned.
But Huang Hao's words indeed struck a chord with them. For these somewhat arrogant young men, Phillips was certainly not their idol.
“Darren, show them the data.”
Upon hearing Huang Hao's words, Darren displayed Birmingham's technical statistics on the screen.
Cambridge United players looked at the data, somewhat disbelieving their eyes.
Only Phillips and Jermaine had double-digit goals for the entire Cambridge United team. Jermaine scored 14 goals, and Phillips 12.
And Marcus Bent, ranked third, only had 3!
“Now you know why, right?”
Huang Hao was very satisfied with the players' expressions. With Jermaine injured and unable to play, shutting down Phillips meant Birmingham's offense would be at least half-muted!
Seeing the data, Suxi's eyes slowly hardened.
This time, I will not allow you to do as you please on my turf!
