West Bromwich Albion have been promoted to the Premier League – a record fifth promotion for the team – on a dramatic night when they could only manage a draw against Queens Park Rangers. Other results worked in their favour, however, including a Barnsley home win over Brentford.
Wednesday night’s (July 22) results pushed Albion up to second, behind league champions Leeds, who they now join to earn automatic promotion to the Premier League.
QPR scored first against Bromwich, through Ryan Manning, but WBA equalized through Grady Diangana before Callum Robinson put them ahead. Eberechi Eze then equalized for QPR with a superb strike – but it wasn’t enough to prevent West Brom’s promotion.
West Brom Manager, Slaven Bilic was excited: “You don’t know how exhausting it was this season. You can’t imagine how proud and happy I am.”
“I managed my country for six years and I said no matter which club I manage nothing will compare when you are manager of your national team. I can’t say it’s the same but I feel as proud as I felt then.”
“We’ve got work to do but I haven’t thought about it because of this crazy situation. We did a bit of work during the lockdown. Now, not today, not tomorrow or the day after and we’ll see next week.”
Queens Park Rangers’s manager, Mark Warburton:
“Watching West Brom celebrate on the pitch, it’s going to burn into your soul. I want that.
“The players have been asked and challenged every game, it’s a very high level.
“It was important we came here and showed the appropriate level of commitment. The players deserve a lot of credit.
“We’re happy, teams have come here and if you’re not careful you can get badly hurt. The players have worked hard on the training ground and got the result they deserve to.”
