Gary Lineker has congratulated Derby County manager Frank Lampard after his side set up a play-off showdown against Leeds United by finishing sixth in the Championship standings.
Derby beat West Brom 3-1 at Pride Park on Sunday to seal their spot in the play-offs, where they will contest a two-legged clash with Leeds.
Earlier in the season, Marcelo Bielsa got into hot water after sending a staff member to spy on Derby’s training.
And that fiercely-debated seems like it will be brought up again in the coming weeks as the two promotion-hopefuls take each other on in the play-offs.
Lineker took to social media straight after the play-off semi-finals were confirmed, and he could not help but crack a joke about the spygate scandal.
“I spy a playoff between Derby and Leeds. Well played Frank Lampard, that’s a pretty decent achievement in his first season,” said Lineker via his personal Twitter account on Sunday.
I spy a playoff between @dcfcofficial and @LUFC. Well played Frank Lampard, that’s a pretty decent achievement in his first season.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 5, 2019
OPINION
It will be very interesting to see what happens between Leeds and Derby. One team is delighted to be in the play-offs after sealing sixth spot on the last day of the Championship season, while the other team really doesn’t want to be there after dropping out of the top-two. Leeds go into the play-offs in the worst form out of all four clubs in the play-offs. West Brom are inconsistent, Aston Villa were unstoppable until they met Norwich on Sunday and Derby have picked up their form at the right time to seal sixth. Leeds have been poor lately and their defeat to bottom club Ipswich will hurt, even though it did not really matter too much. Patrick Bamford will also be banned for the first-leg against Derby but Tom Lawrence could be in hot water after what appeared to be a dive to win a penalty against West Brom. We cannot predict how these matches will go.