The San Francisco 49ers produced a thrilling fightback to set up a Super Bowl rematch with the Kansas City Chiefs in Las Vegas.
Defending champions Kansas City won the first of Sunday's Conference Championship games, beating the Baltimore Ravens 17-10 to reach the NFL's big game for a fourth time in five years.
The Detroit Lions, one of just four NFL teams never to play in the Super Bowl, then led 24-7 at half-time against five-time winners San Francisco.
But the 49ers scored 17 points in a dramatic eight-minute span to draw level, before going in front for the first time with just under 10 minutes left.
San Francisco have been favourites to win Super Bowl 58 since late November because of their star-studded roster while Kansas City were playing in the AFC Championship game for a sixth straight year.
But in the last two weeks of the play-offs both teams have both had to dig deep to book their spot on the Strip on 11 February.
The 49ers, the top seed in the NFC Conference, had to come from behind to survive a scare against Green Bay in the divisional round before recovering from an even bigger deficit against Detroit.
The Chiefs, meanwhile, had to play on the road in the play-offs for the first time during their recent spell of dominance, yet they have still shown their championship quality by winning at Buffalo and now Baltimore, the AFC's top seed.
Dan Campbell has turned around Detroit's fortunes in just three years as coach, and the Lions have won more play-off games this month (two) than they have in the rest of the Super Bowl era, which started in 1966.
It seemed like they were set for another as they stunned the home crowd in California. On just the game's fourth snap, Jameson Williams jinked through the 49ers defence for a 42-yard touchdown.
After a missed San Francisco field-goal attempt, David Montgomery crashed over as Detroit made it 14-0, before the 49ers replied with Christian McCaffrey also getting in for a short-yardage score.
The hosts continued to struggle against the run game as Jahmyr Gibbs got in from 15 yards, before the Lions added a field goal right before the half-time break.
A San Francisco field goal cut the deficit to 24-10 before a stunning catch by Brandon Aiyuk gave the 49ers hope. Both he and Detroit's Kindle Vildor jumped for a deep pass just yards from the end zone and the ball bounced off Vildor's hand and facemask before Aiyuk stayed alert to make an acrobatic grab.
Moments later Brock Purdy found Aiyuk for a touchdown, and the momentum was firmly with San Francisco after they forced a Detroit fumble which gave McCaffrey, favourite to be the Offensive Player of the Year, the chance to punch in his second score.
That levelled it up, and after throwing an interception in the first half, quarterback Purdy was superb in the second, setting up a field goal to make it 27-24, before Elijah Mitchell punched in another 49ers touchdown to ensure Williams' second score was merely a late consolation.
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