Smith praises Brentford for second-half battle

Brentford boss Dean Smith praised his side for their second-half display against Arsenal.

The Bees bowed out of the Carabao Cup with a 3-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium, where they were two down at the interval.

Alan Judge’s free-kick brought them back into the game and they forced Arsenal to endure some anxious moments before Alexandre Lacazette scored the Gunners’ third goal.

“I said a few words at half-time,” Smith said. “I think the first goal knocked a little bit of the stuffing out of us.

“We tried to go and press them as high as we could and they have got an awful lot of quality, and they broke the press a couple of times and had chances.

“We restricted them to a few chances, but never played at the intensity I really wanted in the first half.

“I said to the players at half-time, ‘We can either sit behind the ball and let Arsenal have it and take 2-0, or go and ask a question’.

“And the players went and asked a question in the second half. We forced a very good team into mistakes and almost took them to penalties at the end.”