Manchester United, Chelsea qualify for UEFA Champions League on final matchday

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By: Sports Desk |

Updated: July 26, 2020 10:59:53 pm





Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes celebrates with teammates after his goal. (Source: AP)

Manchester United and Chelsea qualified for next season’s UEFA Champions League after a dramatic final matchday of Premier League on Sunday.

Manchester United won 2-0 at Leicester with the help of Bruno Fernandes’ 71st-minute penalty and Jesse Lingard’s stoppage-time goal. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men finished third on goal difference with 66 points.

Chelsea managed to finish fourth with 66 points behind Liverpool and the two Manchester clubs after defeating Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-0 at Stamford Bridge through two first-half goals of Mason Mount and Olivier Giroud.

After Marcos Alonso went down outside the Wolves area, Mount curled an exquisite free-kick over the wall into the top left corner in the first minute of the injury-time. Barely two minutes later, Giroud latched on to Mount’s pass, rounded goalkeeper Rui Patricio and held off Wolves captain Conor Coady to poke the ball home.

Frank Lampard’s Chelsea side needed a point to guarantee a Champions League spot in a three-way battle involving Manchester United and Leicester City and would have felt aggrieved had they missed out after being a top-four fixture since last October.

On the other hand, Leicester joined Tottenham Hotspur in qualifying for UEFA Europa League by finishing fifth with 62 points.

In the bottom half of the table, Bournemouth and Watford joined Norwich City on their way down to the second-tier Championship. While Watford suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Arsenal, Bournemouth finished their season with an inconsequential 3-1 win against Everton.

Liverpool ended their title-winning season on 99 points with a 3-1 win at Newcastle, and Manchester City inflicted a 5-0 defeat to Norwich City where Kevin De Bruyne equalled a Premier League record with his 20th assist of the season.

While Leicester’s Jamie Vardy won the Golden Boot with 23 goals in the season, Manchester City’s Ederson won the Golden Glove with 16 clean sheets.

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