Report and free highlights as Danny Ings fires Aston Villa ahead early in the first half; a superb Yoane Wissa strike levels for Brentford before half-time; Mads Roerslev scores his first Premier League goal to win the game late on for the Bees
Monday 3 January 2022 06:07, UK
A late strike from Mads Roerslev saw Brentford come from behind to beat Aston Villa 2-1 and claim their first Premier League victory of 2022.
A frantic end to the game mirrored that of Brentford's victory against Watford on December 10, when late goals from Pontus Jansson and Bryan Mbeumo secured all three points.
The winning goal came a little earlier on Sunday, with Roerslev seeing an initial effort saved by Emiliano Martinez, before slotting home into the far corner (83) for his first Premier League goal.
But Brentford once again proved themselves to be a shrewd outfit as they again came from a goal down. Danny Ings had seen Villa ahead with a fine strike early in the first half (16), which Steven Gerrard's side dominated much of.
But Yoane Wissa - not averse to his own late winner - equalised for Brentford out of nowhere just before the break (42) with a superb curling effort.
Roerslev's goal sparked a flurry of late chances - although a very clear opening had come just before, only for Martinez to push Frank Onyeka's effort onto the bottom of the post - as Villa searched for their own equaliser, but the Bees held on for another impressive victory.
It sees Brentford oust Villa from 12th place, going level on 23 points with Crystal Palace. Villa drop down a place into 13th, losing back-to-back games for the first time under Gerrard.
The opening 15 minutes were not blessed with chances, but Villa soon found the net. It was a superb turn in midfield from Emiliano Buendia to peel away from his marker, before slotting Ings through. The Brentford defence could not get back in time as Ings slotted into the far corner with a fine finish for his fourth Premier League goal of the season.
Both sides continued to see half chances as the game continued. John McGinn fired just over from range, while Mathias Jensen also sent an effort wide of the target at the other end.
The game was meandering towards half-time, but a superb moment of magic from Wissa saw Brentford level. Roerslev broke down the right before feeding the forward at the top of the area. His first touch was superb, driving onto the ball before curling into the top corner.
Brentford brought their momentum into the second half, but it was Villa who saw the early shots. Buendia fired just over the crossbar before Bertrand Traore tricked the away fans into thinking he had scored - only to find the side of the net and be flagged for offside.
Much like the first half, the second period lacked any real flow or sustained excitement until Brentford had a huge chance to score a second in the 75th minute. The Bees drove forward after some sloppy play from the visitors, with Ivan Toney's flick finding the run of Onyeka. He tried to place the ball home, but Martinez leapt to push the effort onto the post.
But their winner was yet to come and it was from an unlikely source. Roerslev was slipped in down the right of the area, seeing his initial strike saved well by Martinez. But the rebound fell at his feet, with the Villa goalkeeper not able to recover in time as the ball fired past him and into the far corner.
As you would expect, the late Brentford goal sparked an urgency in Villa not seen for much of the second half. Even Martinez came up for a late corner, but there was no goalkeeper goal for the Argentine as Brentford stood firm for the victory.
A goal and assist isn't a bad day's work for the Dane. It was a real striker's goal for the winner as he turned home a rebounded save. He played a lovely ball into Wissa's feet too, all while slipping over, and had a real hand in Brentford's comeback victory.
He told Sky Sports: "I'm very happy. It's a great feeling. You can see it means so much to the crowd. Every point is crucial in this league and I'm very happy to help the team.
"Mine could have looked a bit better, but a goal is a goal. Everybody knows [Yoane Wissa] has the finish in him. I knew when he got the perfect touch that he'd find the far corner."
Brentford manager Thomas Frank: "We played a very bad first half in many ways. Aston Villa were maybe a little bit on top, but I think it was a bad football match in the first half.
"It shows a lot about the mentality of the group. I said before the game about our mentality and how we manage to get three points from the game because I knew it would be an even game. At half-time, I said to keep the discipline, keep the good structure high and low. We will create something… I can't praise the players enough for their mentality.
"We needed a magic moment from one of our players and Wissa had that moment - what a goal. The whole action was fantastic, that's why we bought him.
"I think Mads deserves a lot of praise. It's a very good Brentford story - we're taking a young player, nobody really knows him. We work hard with him for two years and now he's played four or five Premier League starts, a good assist, a good goal and he deserves a lot of praise.
"In a way, it shouldn't be possible that we're above Villa. The amount of money they've spent on their team in the last three years, I think they have a very good squad. I think they're a good club in many ways so that we're above them is quite good. But it was a game that could easily have been a draw, a tight game that we saw out in the end. Now we just need to continue.
Aston Villa manager Steven Gerrard: "It was a really good first half. They had one chance in the first half and they scored, with two chances in the second half. We've gifted them three chances and conceded two goals from them.
"That's the big disappointment and inevitably we went on to lose the game. But from what I saw across the 90 minutes, we were much the better team.
"We had control for large periods. We were the only team looking to play and create stuff, and we did create enough to score more than one goal. We didn't and we conceded two poor goals, so it's no surprise that we're disappointed.
"We showed a lot of grit in the opening games, a lot of fight. The second goal is a catalogue of errors. There's no grit, no fight, there's no one really showing the right aggression.
"It was too easy scoring against us today because we haven't faced 10 chances today. We haven't faced really dangerous attack. We've faced three dangerous moments and let in two goals.
"We can't use [injuries and Covid] as an excuse. It's on all of us to make sure we cope and survive. What we faced today and what we gave, we should have taken at least a draw out of the game. That's what stings more than anything.
"There were opportunities for players to step up today and stake a claim but I'm not sure we can take any positives away."
Both sides are in the FA Cup third round next weekend, with Brentford visiting Port Vale on Saturday; kick-off at 3pm.
Aston Villa travel to Manchester United for their third-round clash on Monday, January 10; kick-off at 7.55pm.
