Huddersfield earns top-flight berth after beating Reading on spot-kicks

Huddersfield Town's blown chances in the early stages of Monday's Championship play-off final against Reading weren't to matter as David Wagner's side confirmed a spot in the Premier League on penalties at Wembley.

An unsuccessful effort from Michael Hefele, who was playing through injury in extra time, looked to have landed a critical blow to the Terriers' bid for promotion, but a skied spot-kick from Liam Moore, and then Jordan Obita's thwarted penalty for Reading's fifth attempt, gave Huddersfield the chance to secure promotion.

And Christopher Schindler, part of the German contingent in the Victorian market town, made no mistake. Both he and goalkeeper Danny Ward have written themselves into Huddersfield's history books.

(Courtesy: Terje/Twitter)

Huddersfield's promotion ends a 45-year wait for top-flight football, and from the unlikely setting of the John Smith's Stadium, it will enter the promised land with a reputation for entertaining. Although both sides played out an untidy 0-0 draw over 120 minutes, Wagner has employed his ranks to play the breathless, high-pressing game that was championed at Borussia Dortmund when he handled the reserve team.

Huddersfield started strongly from the first whistle but was wasteful with its early chances. Izzy Brown, a loanee from Chelsea, was the guiltiest party when he somehow steered an effort wide from three yards with Ali Al-Habsi's goal at his mercy.

(Courtesy: James Whaling/Twitter)

Perhaps encouraged by the Terriers' profligacy, the Royals gradually got into the game over the course of the opening stanza, but couldn't carve out the clear chances that the industrious West Yorkshire lot manufactured, nor could they hog possession in the way they did over much of the regular season.

The second half was real rumpus, with chances at a premium for two hard-working sides. Huddersfield still had the better of proceedings in attack, yet picked up yellow cards for Jonathan Hogg, Elias Kachunga, and Tommy Smith as Wagner's players desperately tried to retrieve the ball when it was temporarily lost.

With the occasion getting scrappier by the minute, referee Neil Swarbrick blew his whistle at the end of seven minutes of injury time to condemn both sides to another half-hour of heavy slugging. It was messy, and the shootout was inevitable.

In the month of Huddersfield's descent from the old First Division in 1972, T. Rex and Deep Purple were battling over the No. 1 spot in the U.K. album charts. Now, 45 years later, the Premier League isn't exactly bracing itself for swaggering glam-rock from the Terriers, but it's undoubtedly frenetic, heavy-metal football - as Wagner's old friend Jurgen Klopp once described their shared philosophy of gegenpressing.