Leeds vs Southampton: 16 stats tell Championship play-off final story

Premier League membership is the prize on offer when third takes on fourth in the final of the Championship playoffs this Sunday.

It is two massive clubs pitted against each other with everything on the line for the winners and utter dejection for the losers.

These stats, published by Opta, tell the story of the two teams and what could be a historic Championship playoff final... 

Leeds United vs Saints - Sunday, May 26 - Match stats and facts

🔻 Saints were the only team to do the double over Leeds this season. The last team to lose both league meetings with a team in the regular campaign and beat the same opponent in the second-tier playoff final were Fulham against Brentford in 2019/20.

Southampton beat Leeds 3-1 and 2-1 earlier this season (Image: PA)

🔻 Leeds and Southampton have met 100 times previously with the Whites holding 48 wins to 30 Saints victories (D22). Of the 19 opponents Leeds have played 100 or more times, their win rate against Saints is their greatest (48 per cent). 

🔻 This is the third second-tier playoff final between two teams that were relegated in the previous campaign, after Leicester City 2-1 Crystal Palace in 1995/96 and West Ham 2-1 Blackpool in 2011/12.

🔻 Leeds have reached a playoff final for the fourth time, failing to win promotion on the previous three occasions (1986-87, 2005-06, 2007-08). That is the joint-most play-off finals any team has played in without winning (level with Bristol City, Exeter City, Lincoln and Shrewsbury).

🔻 Saints will play in their first playoff final with this just their second-ever playoff campaign, after a semi-final exit on penalties to Derby County in 2007. Saints last won promotion to the Premier League in 2011/12 when finishing as Championship runners-up.

A late goal from Grzegorz Rasiak saw Saints take Derby County to penalties (Image: Daily Echo)

🔻 Leeds have lost their last two matches at Wembley, most recently the 2008 League One playoff final to Doncaster Rovers (0-1), their only previous playoff game there. Their last win at the venue came in the 1992 Community Shield against Liverpool, winning 4-3 with Eric Cantona scoring a hat-trick.

🔻 Saints have lost eight of their 10 previous matches at Wembley, including each of their last five. Only Newcastle (nine between 1974 and 2023), Leicester City (six between 1949 and 1993) and Brentford (six between 1930 and 2020) have ever had a longer run of defeats at the venue.

🔻 Leeds' 4-0 win over Norwich City in the second leg of their playoff semi-final tie was the biggest-ever victory by any team in a Championship playoff game (since 2004-05). The last team to gain promotion to the top flight via the playoffs without conceding was Crystal Palace in 2013.

Leeds fans celebrating their victory over Norwich City (Image: PA)

🔻 Saints have averaged the highest share of possession (66 per cent) across England’s top four tiers whilst only Manchester City (691 and 24) have recorded more passes and more sequences of 10+ passes per game than Saints (663 and 22).

🔻 Leeds have scored 98 goals across all competitions, their most since 2009/10 (103) when they won automatic promotion to the Championship under Simon Grayson. The only other Leeds boss to see his side reach 100+ goals is Don Revie (six times).

🔻 Saints have won 29 matches across all competitions, their most since their promotion-winning campaign of 2011-12 (30). Saints have also netted 99 goals this term, last notching a century of goals in the 2009/10 season (112).

🔻 Leeds boss Daniel Farke can become the third manager to win promotion to the Premier League three times after Steve Bruce (four) and Neil Warnock (three), following his title-winning seasons with Norwich in 2018/19 and 2020/21.

Leeds boss Daniel Farke bombed Southampton's Russell Martin out of Norwich at the end of his playing career (Image: PA)

🔻 Only Mansfield Town’s Davis Keillor-Dunn (264) has recorded more combined shots and chances created than Leeds winger Crysencio Summerville in the top four tiers (253 - 133 shots, 120 chances created). Should he (20 goals, 9 assists so far) score or assist, he would be the first Leeds player to record 30+ goal involvements in a league season since Chris Wood in 2016/17.

🔻 Adam Armstrong has scored 23 league goals, the most by a Saint since Rickie Lambert in 2011/12 (27). The Englishman has scored four goals across his last three starts against Leeds United, including three goals in two meetings this season. 

🔻 Only two of the current Leeds and Saints squads have scored at Wembley, with Ross Stewart netting for Sunderland against Wycombe in the 2022 League One playoff final and Kyle Walker-Peters scoring for Tottenham against Rochdale in the 2017/18 FA Cup fifth round.

🔻 The Championship play-off winning team has alternated between the teams finishing fourth and third in the last four campaigns, with third-placed Luton Town last triumphant.

Luton Town celebrated last season but have since been returned to the Championship (Image: PA)