'My dream come true' - Sergej Jakirovic achieves career high as Hull City beat Millwall to reach Wembley
Hull City manager Sergej Jakirovic reflects on his side’s stunning Championship play-off semi-final win over Millwall
Sergej Jakirovic was left to bask in the greatest achievement of his career to date after steering Hull City to the Championship play-off final with a win over Millwall.
After a goalless stalemate in the first leg at the MKM Stadium, Hull had work to do down at The Den.
Goals from Mohamed Belloumi and Joe Gelhardt put the Lions to the sword, booking the Tigers a trip to Wembley with a 2-0 win.
The achievement has been made all the more significant by the fact Hull have been operating with a transfer embargo all season.
Hull City manager reflects on momentous achievement
Hull’s manager told Sky Sports: "Since day one, they have been a very nice group. Togetherness is very high. This embargo maybe even stuck us together even more.
"Also, [there is] chemistry between the players. Nobody is angry when he doesn't play so he must be ready. I am very proud of this group of players because they achieved something that was, at the beginning of this season, just a dream.
"I was thinking, 'okay top 10 is our target', but when we started the season I was, in the first months, a little bit worried how we would look, but every game we were better and better, so this is great award for them to go to Wembley. I never been to Wembley so this is also my dream come true.
"I had great success until now as a coach; won the championship [with Zrinjski Mostar and Dinamo Zagreb] and everything, but with the problems we had through all the season, with a lot of injuries, with this embargo this is maybe the best thing that happened in football in my life.
"It's a great feeling, an amazing feeling. We were fantastic today. All the players did a great job. It was very difficult, demanding because we knew they would start very strong, but we responded very well and we are going to Wembley.”
Millwall manager’s view
Jakirovic’s men will face either Middlesbrough or Southampton on May 23, but Millwall will have to lick wounds and begin preparations for another Championship campaign.
Lions boss Alex Neil said: “We didn’t do enough. Honestly until the first goal I didn’t think either team had done enough.
“You have to give Hull credit for defending well but as an attacking force we didn’t have enough across the 90 minutes.”