Soccer Football - Premier League - Brentford v Ipswich Town - GTech Community Stadium, London, Britain - October 26, 2024 A big screen displays the full time score after the match REUTERS/Isabel Infantes
LONDON (Reuters) - Two goals from Bryan Mbeumo helped Brentford to fight back from a two-goal deficit and edge 10-man Ipswich Town 4-3 in an action-packed Premier League contest on Saturday that kept up the hosts’ red-hot home form.
Newly promoted Ipswich would have been confident of their first victory of the league season after going 2-0 up in the first 31 minutes through Sam Szmodics and George Hirst.
But Brentford had other ideas as they struck back through Yoane Wissa and an own goal to level matters at halftime and then led though Mbeumo’s second half penalty.
Ipswich were then reduced to 10 men with the sending off of defender Harry Clarke, who had earlier scored the own goal and given away a penalty, but defied the odds to level through substitute Liam Delap's 86th minute goal, only for Mbeumo to win the game in time added on with a long range effort.
Ipswich hit their hosts with a double blow as they scored twice in three minutes in an exciting start, looking to end their eight-match winless streak since returning to the Premier League.
The first was set up by Kalvin Phillips’ long pass from inside his own half that found Hirst, who changed direction and fed it into Szmodics, who expertly placed the ball into the net.
Another sequence of swift passes led to the second goal, with Ipswich exploiting gaps in the home defence. Conor Chaplin’s reverse pass to Hirst allowed the striker to chip home goalkeeper Mark Flekken from a narrow angle for a goal in his first Premier League start.
Ipswich kept up their attacking initiative against a flustered home side and Szmodics should have made it 3-0 from close range six minutes before half-time.
But they then paid the price for the missed opportunity as Brentford netted two in as many minutes to level.
Keane Lewis-Potter’s break near the halfway line and swift acceleration set up Vitaly Janelt, who in turned the ball to Wissa to sweep home in the 44th minute.
Wissa emphasized his importance to Brentford’s cause on his return from injury as he set up the equaliser by running onto a defence splitting pass from Mikkel Damsgaard and while his effort was half stopped, it spilt loose and was carried back into his own net by the unfortunate Clarke, slipping as he attempted to clear.
HORROR AFTERNOON
Clarke’s horror afternoon continued after the break as he gave away a spotkick for a lunging foul on Lewis-Potter. It was initially given as a freekick outside the area but then after a VAR check upgraded to a penalty, which Mbeumo converted in the 51st minute.
To make matters worse, Clarke then collected a second caution for another clumsy challenge on Lewis-Potter, leaving Ipswich down to 10 men for the last 20 minutes.
But as Brentford besieged the visitors’ goal, they were caught on the counter as Leif Davis delivered a quality cross for Delap to steer home.
Mbeumo, however, ensured 13 points out of 15 at home for Brentford this season with a left footed shot from outside the box to win the game in the sixth minute of stoppage time.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
