David Wagner labels Wembley win a 'fairytale' after Huddersfield secure promotion to Premier League

It may be one of the most pressurised situations in football, and came at the end of one of the most pressurised matches in football, but victorious Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner told his players to merely think about the “easy challenge and opportunity” of just hitting the ball into the net from 10 yards and become “legends” ahead of their 4-3 Championship play-off shoot-out win over Reading.

Having thereby ended the club’s 45-year wait to return to the top-flight division, Wagner also described it as “a fairytale” that came to a happy end and saw the players push the club’s limits because they were willing to leave their “comfort zone”.

Huddersfield achieved promotion after a huge swing in the shoot-out that was so much more action-packed than the drab 0-0 draw that preceded it, with misses by Reading’s Liam Moore and Jordan Obita cancelling out Michael Hefele’s initial miss, allowing Christopher Schindler to send them into the Premier League.

With such pressure, and so much talk of the match being worth £175m, Wagner looked to calm his players by reminding them of the relative simplicity of the task - and the penalty-saving qualities of on-loan Liverpool goalkeeper Danny Ward.

“We have Wardy, and I said to them it is the easiest thing to do to put the ball into the net from 12 yards. After 10 months, two teams have to do that. ‘Look at this easy challenge and opportunity’. If you had asked them they would have said ‘yes, I will take chance’.

“I was surprised when Schimmy [Schindler] came up alongside me and said he wanted to take one, but he took it and scored and that was great.

“I said to the players before the game you are heroes, you were fifth in the league. But to go from hero to zero in football, sometimes it’s only a week. You have the opportunity to become legends.

open image in gallery

“Everybody will be reminded what this group of players have done. We have had so many setbacks in the past, small squad, totally independent of everything around us, we only trusted in ourselves.”

Asked about the constant talk of finance, and how limited Huddersfield’s budget was compared to so many rivals, Wagner said it was lower than had been reported, and notably mentioned the predictions that they would go down.

“It’s much less than £12m. We said we wanted to leave our comfort zone because if we don’t we won’t be competitive. I asked the players a lot of times to do that and they did. It’s great that they got something paid them back.

open image in gallery

“I’m happy we have proven that experience is not everything, since I arrived I was always confronted with no experience in league in England and play-offs. Experience is important but if you have passion and desire you can do it and I’m very proud. To be a Premier League manager sounds ok; I have not thought about it. It wasn’t in my head and won’t come into my head as I was focused on the game.”

A former Borussia Dortmund assistant, Wagner will meet his old boss Jurgen Klopp when Huddersfield take on Liverpool, but will also have to talk to his former mentor about potentially taking penalty-saving hero Ward on loan for another season.

“I think I have a lot of calls to make. Maybe this is why I need some time. I will speak with Jurgen not only about Danny but other things as well. I need a bit of time. I will probably meet him [Klopp] on the sideline in the Premier League.

“When we had a friendly he was the first manager coming into my office, and we drank Cola. When the whistle blows he and me and me are sometimes out of control, even if he is my pal I don’t have to agree with everything that he is doing.

“Next step is to take a shower, then we drive back to Huddersfield. We will celebrate. What happens tomorrow I’m not sure but I’m sure we have some clever people who will organise a celebration.”