The Black Cats are back in the Premier League after a great display at Wembley in the Championship Play-Off final.
The first goal nearly came within the opening two minutes as Anthony Patterson made a great save to his left to deny Kieffer Morre a rapid opener.
Sunderland were struck an early blow before 10 minutes had been played, as Luke O’Nien went down early with what is suspected to be a dislocated shoulder.
United dominated the early exchanges with a few chances on goal but no major breakthroughs.
Sheffield United got themselves ahead early in the game
PA
That was until the 25th minute when the Blades went from one end of the Wembley pitch to the other as Gus Hamer powered his team down the field, squaring a cross to Tyrese Campbell who lifted it over Anthony Patterson to send their fans into raptures around Wembley.
Sunderland was almost out of contention early on as Sheffield’s Harrison Burrows fired in a goal but VAR was quick to disallow the goal due to interference.
Vini Souza moved across Patterson from an offside position and even though he didn’t touch the ball it was ruled he played enough of an impact to disallow the goal.
The teams do not have VAR in the regular season, but they do for the Play-Off final.
The Black Cats had eight minutes of extra time at the end of the first half but were not able to do anything with it.
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Eliezer Mayenda levelled it for the Sunderland
PA
As the teams came out for the second half, Sunderland came out with more fight, getting up the field and getting some momentum for their side, but no goal could be converted.
Sheffield nearly put the game out of reach with 20 minutes to go as Dennis Cirkin made a mess with his footwork and Andre Brooks was quick to make him pay, but Patterson again kept his side in the game, with Sunderland hanging on to a game that should have been long gone.
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It took until 15 minutes to go for Sunderland to finally put some quality together but as soon as they did they stopped Sheffield United’s easy return to the Premier League and went completely against the run of play, levelling the game.
Patrick Roberts spilt the Sheffield United defence and found Eliezer Mayenda who fired it into the roof of the net.
Tom Watson stole the game in injury time
Reuters
With two minutes left in injury time, Sunderland turned the entire match on its head as Tom Watson came off the bench to fire Sunderland into the Premier League for the first time since 2016.
The opportunity came after Kiefer Moore gave the ball away and Watson made it count for the Black Cats.
Sunderland will now take the final place in the Premier League after winning what has been described as the "richest game in football" with the BBC claiming this win will be worth £220million for the club.
