Hull City Overcome Millwall to Reach Wembley Final

Millwall’s playoff curse at The Den lives on. Another home leg, another defeat. The Lions’ perfect record of pain in Championship playoff home ties remains intact, and this one will sting for a long time.

Hull City arrived as the side clinging to history and hope, chasing memories of 2008 and 2016. Millwall came in as the form team, unbeaten in six, strong at home, and loudly backed by a crowd that believed this might finally be the year. For a while, that belief felt justified. By full-time, it felt naïve.

Hull opened with intent, snapping into attacks and forcing Millwall onto their heels. A flurry of early corners gave the Tigers a foothold, and almost the lead. Charlie Hughes rose to glance a header towards the far corner, the ball drifting agonisingly wide with Anthony Patterson beaten. Millwall exhaled as one.

They had reason to be grateful. Only champions Coventry scored more away goals in the first 15 minutes of league games than Hull this season, and the visitors carried that threat again here. Millwall, for all their recent form, were fortunate to reach that point level.

The scare woke them up. The Lions began to press higher, bite harder, and turn the match. Femi Azeez led the charge, darting into space and testing the angle with Millwall’s first real opening just minutes after Hughes’ miss. The shot didn’t bring a goal, but it shifted the mood. Suddenly Hull were the ones scrambling.

Millwall took control of the rest of the half. Thierno Ballo snapped into a tackle that forced Kyle Joseph off with an ankle injury, then almost delivered the breakthrough himself. A cross from the right skimmed across the six-yard box, Ballo stretching every sinew, missing by inches. The Den roared its frustration; the pattern felt ominous. Pressure, territory, half-chances – but no goal.

There was another warning sign lurking in the numbers. Millwall had conceded 20 of their 25 home league goals this season after half-time. Old habits in this stadium die hard.

They nearly repeated the trick three minutes after the restart. Hull sliced through with the sharpest move of the night: incisive passing, a clever run, and Regan Slater threading Oli McBurnie in at the near post. McBurnie struck firmly, but Tristan Crama threw himself in front and blocked. It was a huge intervention, and for a spell it looked like the kind of moment that swings a tie.

It didn’t. It only delayed the inevitable.

With the game drifting and chances drying up before the hour, Alex Neil moved first. The Millwall boss, chasing just a second win in seven personal meetings with Hull, reshaped his side and sent on Alfie Doughty. The change was meant to inject energy.

Instead, it opened the door.

Barely a minute later, Matt Crooks split the pitch with a searing ball out to Mohamed Belloumi on the right. The Algerian gathered, squared up his man, and went to work. He jinked infield, onto his left, and curled a gorgeous strike beyond Doughty’s desperate recovery and past Patterson into the far corner. One touch, one idea, one ruthless finish.

The Den fell flat. Hull’s end erupted. The tie had its turning point.

Millwall wobbled. The composure that had underpinned their strong finish to the season vanished. Barry Bannan, twice a playoff winner in his career, made the kind of mistake that haunts veterans as much as rookies. He gave the ball away cheaply in no-man’s land, straight to Belloumi. Hull’s standout performer didn’t hesitate, feeding Liam Millar in space. Millar looked certain to double the lead, only for Jake Cooper to appear with a vital block, deflecting the shot over the bar.

For a few minutes, that tackle felt like a lifeline. It wasn’t.

With 12 minutes left, Hull killed the contest with a move that summed up the difference between the sides: clarity in the final third. Again Belloumi found room on the right. Again he made it count. This time, he didn’t shoot. He slid an outrageous outside-of-the-boot pass square into the box, perfectly weighted for substitute Joe Gelhardt.

Gelhardt didn’t snatch. He chose. He opened his body, picked his spot, and drilled low into the bottom-right corner. Patterson got a hand to it but couldn’t keep it out. Hull’s bench exploded. Millwall’s players sank.

There was no late surge, no grandstand finish. The Lions, who had spent the season fighting to be “best of the rest,” ran out of ideas and time. Their wait for a Premier League return stretches into a 36th year, the ghost of 1990 still hovering over every failed push.

Hull, by contrast, keep their flawless relationship with the Championship playoffs intact. They have never been knocked out at this stage, and this performance showed why. Calm under pressure, brutal when the chances came, and led by a man of the match in Belloumi who played as if Wembley was already in sight.

Just a year ago, Hull were scrambling for survival on the final day. Now they stand 90 minutes from the “Promised Land,” heading to Wembley on 23 May with momentum, history, and belief on their side.

For Millwall, the question lingers: how many more chances like this will they get? For Hull, the only one that matters now is simple – can they finish the job?