Well then, with no sign of either manager on any TV station I’m aware of I’m going to shuffle off. Congratulations to Brentford, a fine team full of good players with a manager who encourages them to have, or at the very least to create, fun. A couple of those players will surely be in the Premier League before long, but for all Norwich’s rather scary form and the presence of Bournemouth and a hopefully about-to-be-roused Watford in the division there’s surely a good chance of them all making it together. For Brentford, promotion and a return to a top flight they last graced in 1947 is probably overdue. Not as overdue as a shot at a domestic cup semi-final, though. Bye!
SEMIFINAL @Carabao_Cup HERE WE COME !!!!! 🏆😃 pic.twitter.com/r7nwSCIMCp
— Sergi Canós Tenés (@sergicanos) December 22, 2020
Jonathan Liew was the Guardian’s man at the Brentford Community Stadium, and here is his report:
Still, at least Newcastle can concentrate on the league now. On a dank and dreary night in west London, they were handed a lesson in invention and ambition by a Brentford team who can now celebrate the first major cup semi-final in their 131-year history. They got there by believing in their plan, by having a plan, by wanting the ball: traits that have not defined Steve Bruce’s side for a good while now.
It feels harsh on Brentford, a team of sparkling industry and indefinable chemistry, to reduce one of their greatest triumphs to a case of big-club failure. But the truth is that Newcastle are no longer even much of a scalp any more. Josh Dasilva’s second-half winner was the least Brentford deserved for a performance in which they created more, shot more, tackled more, dreamed more.
Much more here:
While Paul Doyle will take you through every twist of the match at the Emirates:
Sky have already turned their attention to tonight’s second Carabao Cup quarter-final, between Arsenal and Manchester City. There’ll be a match report along in a jiffy, and hopefully some managerial reactions, but in the meantime wrap your ears around this:
Brentford thoroughly deserved to win that. Fraser was bright on Newcastle’s left flank in the first half, and Murphy grew into the game on their right, but nothing quite happened for them in the middle. Brentford looked more enterprising at set pieces as well as open play, made several good chances and after several poor finishes Dasilva found a perfectly composed one, and the deal was done. Brentford have now knocked 20% of all Premier League teams out of this competition this season.
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Final score: Brentford 1-0 Newcastle
90+5 mins: Brentford are in the semi-finals of the League Cup for the first time in all of history!
90+4 mins: They eventually take it short to Toney, who feels a bump in the back from Longstaff and goes down. Brentford have a free kick, and are in no hurry.
90+3 mins: Toney bursts into the area from the left and shoots towards the far corner, but Darlow saves. Brentford have a corner, and are in no hurry.
90+2 mins: Murphy delightfully tricks his way between Ghoddos and Jensen, but having sent in a succession of good crosses this one is poor, and headed clear.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time.
90 mins: Another good cross from Murphy, Gayle chests the ball down and it hits Sorensen’s heels while he’s looking the other way. It could have gone anywhere, including back to Gayle for a straightforward finish, but it deflects to Daniels.
89 mins: Brentford work a fine crossing chance for Fosu-Henry (it didn’t take much work, with massive gaps appearing in the Newcastle defence) but his cross is really not very good, and it flies out of the area on the other side.
87 mins: An excellent ball in from Murphy finds Wilson, who chests it down only for Jensen to get a boot to it first and hammer it clear.
85 mins: Carroll has the day’s most ludicrous shot, steamrolling Longstaff out of the way to chest the ball down 30 yards from goal before hammering a left-footed volley several miles over the goal.
83 mins: Murphy’s cross is flicked on by Gayle, but it bounces to Wilson at knee height and he can’t quite stop it hitting his knee, off which it deflects to Daniels.
80 mins: There’s another goal in this yet, as Newcastle push forward and Brentford refuse to sit back. The visitors make another change, bringing Andy Carroll on for Jamal Lewis. Brentford bring the eyemasked Jensen on for Dasilva.
77 mins: Chance for a second! A ball in from the left dips to Norgaard at the far post, who turns it goalwards from close range but Darlow gets in the way!
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74 mins: Thompson slides in to win the ball in the centre circle, but he keeps sliding right into Gayle, knocking him over like a bowling pin. The game is briefly paused to allow Gayle to get up in his own time.
71 mins: Shelvey has been booked, and will not play in Newcastle’s next Carabao Cup game this season, if they have one.
70 mins: Very nicely crafted and converted, this:
“BEAUTIFULLY STRUCK!”#CaraboCup | @BrentfordFC pic.twitter.com/QuqWHWoIs0
— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) December 22, 2020
69 mins: Ivan Toney is now on the pitch, and Sergi Canos is no longer.
68 mins: Chance for an equaliser! Joelinton passes to Wilson, in a pocket of space near the penalty spot, and he takes a touch and sends in a shot, which hits Sorensen I think, and deflects wide.
GOAL! Brentford 1-0 Newcastle (Dasilva, 66 mins)
The game finally gets its goal! Canos crosses from the left, the ball dips to earth just as Dasilva runs onto it, and he sweeps it low and hard past Darlow!
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65 mins: Dwight Gayle does now come on, replacing Almiron. Newcastle also bring Joelinton on for Fraser.
63 mins: A Canos shot hits a defender and rebounds to Norgaard, whose shot hits a defender and goes wide.
63 mins: Dwight Gayle comes down from the substitutes’ seats, prepares to come on, then is told to sit down again.
60 mins: A Brentford substitution, as Norgaard comes on for Janelt to make his first appearance since the start of October.
55 mins: Good work from Fosu-Henry on the right, and he eventually blasts a low cross that hits Hayden in the upper leg region, and deflects into his arm. A few members of the home side ask for a penalty, but they don’t get one.
51 mins: Murphy is played through to the right of the penalty area. Thompson comes over to challenge. He carries the ball, and keeps carrying, and keeps carrying, and then swings his right foot, misses his kick and falls over.
50 mins: The strange thing about this game is that basically nothing happens, and then someone nearly scores. And then nothing happens for another while. There have been 12 shots so far, split 6-6.
46 mins: Half a chance for Newcastle, as Wilson heads Fraser’s cross over the bar from 12 yards or so. There really is no sensible reason why this is still goalless.
46 mins: Peeeeeep!
The player are back out. No sign of any substitutions quite yet.
I’ve just received a press release from Kent county council. “It remains important that people currently avoid travelling to Kent,” they write. “If you must travel, come prepared for delays and carry food, water and blankets.” We live in crazy times. As if to prove the point, Newcastle United and Brentford are both just 45 minutes - sure, and a goal - from a cup semi-final. More to come imminently.
Half time: Brentford 0-0 Newcastle
45 mins: Peeeeeep! The referee decides there’s no need for any stoppage time, and that’s the interval!
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44 mins: What a chance for Newcastle! Wilson is played through, but he refuses to shoot even as he goes past the desperate lunge of the last defender, and the advancing Daniels, and finally he lays it off for Fraser to have a rubbish shot instead.
43 mins: So heavy is the rainfall that there are now puddles on the edge of the pitch, and apparently in some parts of the actual playing surface..
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38 mins: It’s hard to complain about the entertainment value, given the nmber of chances that have been created, but somehow the game hasn’t really fired.
35 mins: Newcastle nearly score! A long pass from right to left is chested down by Fraser and half-volleyed goalwards, but Daniels tips over!
32 mins: Another Brentford corner, and this time Darlow comes for it but pats it down unconvincingly to Fosu-Henry on the edge of the area, who slams a volley emphatically high.
29 mins: Brentford could conceivably had this game all but won by now. It look a horrible evening in Brentford, the pitch isn’t the best, and Newcastle are looking quite uncomfortable, particularly in defence.
26 mins: Incredible miss! The corner dips beyond the far post to Pinnock, is headed back across, and Canos has an easy chance to turn it in but instead sends it wide!
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25 mins: Dasilva crosses again, this time with his left favoured right foot, but he mishits to emphatically that Darlow has to tip it over the bar.
23 mins: Brentford hit the bar! Dasilva crosses low from the right and it runs through to Ghoddos, bouncing a little awkwardly (I’m being charitable here), and he can’t hit the target from 15 yards! That should also have been a goal, really.
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21 mins: Fraser crosses from the left, and perhaps Wilson was assuming that Sorensen would clear it, because he wasn’t at all ready for it to come through to him, and what might have been pretty much a tap-in ends without an effort on goal.
18 mins: An excellent long, diagonal pass from Fosu-Henry to Ghoddos doesn’t lead to anything, but is still worth savouring.
15 mins: A Brentford attack ends as Almiron goes shopping in the free-kick aisle, massively overreacting to what tiny contact he might have felt and winning a set piece for his side.
13 mins: “Such fine margins: Newcastle played us (Fulham) in the Premier League on Saturday and play Brentford of the Championship tonight,” says Richard Hirst. “Could so easily have been the other way round.” This is indeed true, Fulham having beaten Brentford in last season’s play-off final, but lost to them in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup.
11 mins: Chance for Newcastle! Sorensen beats Wilson to a high ball but has no idea where it goes after it hits his head. Wilson spies it first as it loops into the Brentford area, runs onto it, and shoots at goal from an acute angle, but Daniels saves!
8 mins: Newcastle have settled down after an opening that was more rocky than a Sylvester Stallone Oscar-winner.
5 mins: Chance! Brentford win a corner, and Pinnock runs onto it just wide of the near post and flashes a header across goal and wide! That could, and perhaps should, have been the night’s first goal.
3 mins: And the Bees have the day’s first shot, Newcastle undone by a pretty simple straight pass to Dasilva, but it ends with a Ghoddos 25-yarder that flies wide.
2 mins: Brentford mount the game’s first attack, but Dasilva’s cross from the right is scuffed, and rolls gently to the nearest defender.
1 min: Peeeep! Newcastle get the game stasrted!
Sky have just suggested that Toney’s replacement at centre-forward for Brentford, Marcus Forss, is “a real Forss to be reckoned with”.
Out come the players! Brentford are in their familiar red and white striped tops and black shorts, while Newcastle are wearing their highlighter-yellow away kit.
Steve Bruce has a chat with Sky:
The situation’s been difficult, but we’ve put out as strong a team as we can and let’s hope we’ve got enough. It would be great for a club like hours. Since I’ve walked in the door I’ve stressed the importance of the cup competitions and we haven’t been in the semi-finals since 1975, so there’s a carrot for us. What an incentive.
They’ve been a good side for years now. They’ve been terrific. They’ve played a certain way for years now, and been there or thereabouts at the top end. We know what to expect. We know what’s coming, and I hope we can match it and go on to win the match.
Here are the teams again, in purely textual form this time:
Brentford: Daniels, Thompson, Pinnock, Sorensen, Fosu, Da Silva, Janelt, Ghoddos, Forss, Marcondes, Canos. Subs: Raya, Goode, Norgaard, Jensen, Toney, Mbeumo, Stevens.
Newcastle: Darlow, Yedlin, Hayden, Clark, Lewis, Murphy, Sean Longstaff, Shelvey, Fraser, Wilson, Almiron. Subs: Carroll, Joelinton, Ritchie, Gayle, Hendrick, Krafth, Gillespie.
Referee: Robert Jones
The teams!
The teams are in, and Ivan Toney is on the bench! Newcastle make four changes, with Isaac Hayden, Ryan Fraser, Jamal Lewis and Jacob Murphy coming in.
🚨 TEAM NEWS 🚨
— Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) December 22, 2020
Here's our team for tonight's @Carabao_Cup Quarter-Final#BrentfordFC #BRENEW pic.twitter.com/PWVpNWOhgz
🚨 TEAM-NEWS 🚨
— Newcastle United FC (@NUFC) December 22, 2020
This is how we line-up for this evening's Carabao Cup quarter-final...
HWTL! ⚫️⚪️
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Hello world!
A lot of pre-match attention has focused on Ivan Toney, Newcastle flop turned wrecker of Football League defences. Since leaving the club after a grand total of four substitute appearances he has gone on to play magnificently for Peterborough and now also for Brentford, having handled the step up to the Championship with ease – though it certainly helps to be playing in a team that is as resolutely committed to attacking as Thomas Frank’s Bees. Newcastle let Toney go for around £500,000 and a half-decent sell-on clause (Brentford paid £5m for him two years later) and I expect someone will have had a royal rollicking about that by now. “You have to say ‘well done’ to the kid. He’s done very well. He will be a threat,” says Steve Bruce. I’ll say.
Brentford have not been beaten for 13 matches and two days short of two months, and Toney’s goal return in his league appearances for the club so far is as follows: 0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 0 (but an assist), 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1 (and an assist), 1, 0, 1, 1, 0 (and an assist). In 18 league games over the last three months he has scored 16 goals and created three. These are remarkable statistics, for a striker representing any team in any division, and the kind of goalsmithery that is likely to make his stay in the second flight brief, whatever happens to Brentford this season. But he has only ever scored one League Cup goal, and that was more than six years and eight appearances in the competition ago.
Anyway, let’s hope he plays (he spent the fourth-round win over Fulham on the bench) otherwise a lot of pre-match words will have gone to waste, including all those above. Not that Newcastle will mind, standing as they are just one victory, and then also another victory, from reaching their first League Cup final in 45 years and only their second ever. Anyway, and most importantly, welcome!
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