Football

Brentford 3-1 Liverpool: Buzzing bees sting woeful Liverpool

Brentford 3-1 Liverpool: Buzzing bees sting woeful Liverpool

Thomas Frank’s Brentford overcame a sluggish Liverpool side on Monday evening in a 3-1 victory that takes them up to 7th place in the Premier League table. Goals from Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbuemo, in addition to an Ibrahima Konate own goal, were enough for the Bees to secure all three points. 

Jurgen Klopp will perhaps be relieved that the score was only 3-1, with the home side also having two goals ruled out by the officials. His team were second-best for large parts of the game and now face a real fight to get into the Premier League’s top four. 

A hectic first half

Despite the final scoreline, Liverpool were the better team for the opening 15 minutes and looked as if one goal would open the floodgates. Thiago and Fabinho had a grip on the midfield and Salah and Nunez were linking up nicely in and around the Brentford penalty box. 

It wasn’t until the 18th minute that we got to see the pace of Brentford’s counter-attack. Bryan Mbuemo was played in behind the Liverpool back four and he raced away from Virgil Van Dijk who looked like he was stuck in treacle as he tried to turn and keep up with the Brentford forward. Mbuemo’s subsequent shot was parried behind by Alisson to give Brentford their first corner of the game. 

Mbuemo took the corner with a devilish inswinger and the ball bounced off Ibrahima Konate passed a helpless Alisson into the back of the net to give Brentford the lead. And It wasn’t the last corner that would cause Liverpool problems. 

Shortly after, Yoane Wissa, bundled the ball in after another Mbuemo corner only for it to be ruled offside. Then, a third corner – this time a flat, drilled one from Jensen, was met by Wissa again whose shot deflected off Ben Mee into the Liverpool net. Although this goal was given on the field, VAR intervened with Mee standing in an offside position. 

Wissa finally got his goal 30 seconds after VAR had ruled Mee to be offside. The Congolese forward met a wicked first-time delivery from Jensen with his head which Alison thought he’d managed to claw away. Goal-line technology indicated to referee, Stuart Attwell, however, that the ball had crossed the line and the home side had doubled their lead just before the break.

wissa

A comfortable second half

Jurgen Klopp was clearly deeply unimpressed with his side’s first-half display and made three half-time substitutions. They seemed to have the desired effect as Liverpool found the back of the net twice within five minutes of the restart. First, Nunez finished well before VAR ruled him to be offside, and then Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain nodded home from a left-footed Alexander-Arnold cross. No intervention this time, 2-1. 

Then, for whatever reason, Liverpool decided not to capitalise on the momentum they had seemingly garnered. The following 30 minutes were a non-event with the away team bizarrely pumping balls into the box from all angles and Brentford defenders clearing away. 

Thomas Frank’s men made sure of the three points in the 84th minute. Christian Norgaard pinged a beautiful ball over the top of Ibrahima Konate who found himself in a foot race with Bryan Mbuemo. The Brentford man won the race and cut inside the Frenchman, who should have been stronger, before slotting the ball cooly passed Alisson. 

Next up for Brentford in the Premier League is a home match against Bournemouth, meanwhile Liverpool travel to Brighton.


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