Brentford were unable to bring an end to their awful form, nor exorcise the ghosts of a recent haunting, nor even impose themselves on opponents a man down after nine minutes, as Wolves left west London with a deserved draw to take this intriguing tie to a replay.
Nine days previously Gary O’Neil’s men had come to the Gtech Community Stadium and torn their hosts apart, 4-1 in the Premier League. Before the match a video from Thomas Frank implored fans to stick with his team. Ravaged with injuries, they looked well off their usual boisterous selves and could not hold on to an advantage given them by Neal Maupay just before half-time.
For Wolves this was another performance of trademark English grit delivered by a side dominated by its Iberian contingent. First amongst this number is Pedro Neto, who came off the bench to deliver a telling cameo as he continues his return from injury.
João Gomes saw red after he injured the Brentford captain, Christian Nørgaard. From the stands, where there was no benefit of replay or slow motion footage, it looked relatively innocuous.
Gomes, looking to delay a Brentford counter, was upright as he put a right-footed challenge across Nørgaard but missed the ball. Nørgaard collapsed to the floor, Gomes held up his hands but was clearly not anticipating a red card would swiftly follow.
It was also the end of Nørgaard’s night as he hobbled off gingerly. Replays showed that Gomes may not have lost control but had still raked his studs down Nørgaard’s calf.
For 20 minutes, the dismissal simply acted to further heighten nerves within the ground. With one win in their previous eight matches, Brentford are off the boil and their fans are understandably jittery. As Wolves locked into their five-man defensive shape, Brentford struggled to find the creativity or force that might unpick it.
Five minutes before half-time, however, and the sort of thing that can happen when a team is a man down, happened. Pablo Sarabia is of the school of the Iberian mago, an inside forward capable of causing delight in dangerous positions. He’s less useful in and around his own penalty box and, forced into defensive action, he duly directed a sliding tackle at Mathias Jensen that was so long and lingering the Dane had the chance both to avoid it, then throw himself back onto it to win a free kick.
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Jensen swept the ball into the box and Wolves, for the first time in the match, were unable to clear their lines. Nathan Collins, the fall guy in the 4-1, got a poke on the ball and Maupay took the opportunity, driving through on the half volley to score from the penalty spot.
Sarabia was withdrawn 10 minutes into the second half to make way for Neto. Ten minutes later and Wolves were level, the Portuguese at the heart of it. Another magician, Neto is more of a direct runner than Sarabia and his first significant contribution was to win a corner from a counterattack. After his first kick was cleared Neto went short with his second. He then took the return pass before teeing up Tommy Doyle on the edge of the Brentford box to drive a shot back across goal and into the roof of Thomas Strakosha’s net.
Whatever confidence had been instilled into Brentford immediately withered. Wolves were the more composed, more dangerous side for the rest of the match. Brentford had the best chance, a double effort no less, but first José Sá then Nélson Semedo put their bodies in the way to keep the scores level.
