Premier League: Chelsea, Liverpool qualify for Champions League in wild final day

It was billed as “Championship Sunday” in the English Premier League, but it was qualification for Europe that was really up for grabs in the top flight of English soccer.

Manchester City claimed the EPL league title weeks ago and the relegation battle was already sorted by the final day of the season.

Instead, all of Sunday’s drama centered around finishing in the top four, which ensured UEFA Champions League qualification for next season’s competition.

At the top, Chelsea, Leicester City and Liverpool battled for two remaining Champions League spots.

The Blues traveled to Aston Villa, Liverpool hosted Crystal Palace and Leicester hosted Tottenham Hotspur.

Liverpool handled its business with a 2-0 win to clinch third place with 69 points, while Chelsea’s 2-1 loss against Villa left the door open for Leicester to snag fourth place with a win against Tottenham.

Unfortunately for the Foxes, Tottenham came up with a second-half comeback to take that contest 4-2, denying Leicester the Champions League and instead relegating them to the UEFA Europa League. 

In addition, the victory for Tottenham also qualified the club for the newly minted Europa Conference League’s debut season.

Want to relive the wild final day? Here are the biggest moments as they unfolded:

Leicester strikes first

Jamie Vardy was first on the board in the trio of intertwined matches.

His converted penalty gave Leicester a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute, and at the time put them through to the Champions League with zeroes across the scoreboard in Chelsea-Villa and Liverpool-Palace.

Mane of the match

Liverpool got its all-important opener off of the sliding foot of Sadio Mane in the first half. 

At that point, Liverpool was up to the top four with Leicester and Chelsea was on the outside looking in.

Sugar Kane

A sweet finish from Spurs striker Harry Kane evened up the proceedings against Leicester, putting the pressure on the Foxes in the 41st minute.

With Chelsea still tied at the time, Leicester needed to win in order to see the Champions League field next season.

Familiar foe

Over at Villa Park, Bertrand Traore scored a stunning opener against his former club, as Chelsea’s grip on a Champions League spot grew more and more tenuous.

By virtue of Tottenham and Leicester being tied, Chelsea were still ahead in the Champions League race against Leicester.

Both teams were tied with 67 points, but Chelsea held a superior goal difference from the previous 37 matches of the season.

But the 1-0 lead for Villa blew the doors open for Leicester to leapfrog Chelsea with a second-half victory vs. Tottenham.

Vardy party

It didn’t take long for Leicester to march through the door that Chelsea left ajar.

Vardy converted from the penalty spot for the second time against Tottenham to take a 2-1 lead in the 52nd minute, propelling the Foxes past Chelsea, who continued to trail against Villa.

Further complications

With Leicester and Liverpool both winning their respective matches, Chelsea needed to get in gear against Villa to reclaim a spot in the top four.

Instead, Villa turned the screws even tighter on the Blues with a penalty in the 52nd minute.

Anwar El Ghazi stepped up to give Villa the 2-0 lead, sending Blues keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga ⁠— who come on after halftime for the injured Edouard Mendy ⁠— the wrong way and blasting the ball in the back of the net.

That put Chelsea with a massive hole to climb out of to earn a win and ensure UCL qualification.

Battling back

The Blues started their ascent in the 70th minute, when Christian Pulisic found Ben Chilwell with a cross in Villa’s six-yard box.

After goal-line technology confirmed the ball had crossed, the Blues cut their deficit in half to make it 2-1.

They still had work to do to control their own fate, unless they got help from elsewhere.

Brace yourself

Liverpool’s defense marshaled Crystal Palace long enough to allow Mane to get his second of the day and put the game out of reach.

Mane put the icing on the cake with a left-footed shot that deflected into the Crystal Palace goal.

Getting some breathing room allowed Liverpool to largely lock up one of the Champions League spots, especially given how the other results at the time were shaking out.

Punched out

Leicester’s slim lead was erased in the 76th minute after Kasper Schmeichel turned in a Tottenham corner for a costly own goal.

Schmeichel appeared to ask for a foul, but it wasn’t given.

What was given, however, was a goal for Tottenham, making it 2-2 and pushing Leicester to fifth place and back to the outside looking in.

Bale-ing out the Blues

A man who relishes a big moment, Gareth Bale came up aces for Tottenham in the 87th minute.

The Foxes’ shouts for a handball from Kane in the buildup fell on deaf ears, as the 31-year-old Bale’s goal stood after review.

That 3-2 scoreline served as an unlikely gift for Tottenham’s crosstown rivals, Chelsea, but also served to bump Spurs above another London rival, Arsenal, into seventh place.

As a reminder, seventh place meant qualification for the Europa Conference League next season.

Bale then added another in the dying moment of the game, sealing the game ⁠— and the fate of next year’s European participants from the EPL.

In the end

The finals scores of the trio of heated contests were enough to see Chelsea and Liverpool qualify for the Champions League.

Despite a 2-1 loss to Aston Villa, Chelsea made it through thanks to Tottenham knocking off Leicester 4-2. Liverpool made it through on its own accord with a 2-0 triumph against Crystal Palace.

Chelsea fans everywhere were thanking Tottenham for the assist, and head coach Thomas Tuchel conceded that his team caught a major deal of luck on the final day.

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