Late Villa equaliser denies Brentford
Douglas Luiz’s late equaliser denied Brentford victory.
Ivan Toney’s second-half strike looked to have sealed a deserved win for Brentford against an in-form Aston Villa side who come into the game on the back of five straight wins.
Toney stabbed home in the 65th minute from close range after Ashley Young failed to cut out Bryan Mbeumo’s cross and the England striker took full advantage to grab his 19th goal of the season.
Brentford dominated much of the second period with Kevin Schade guilty of a horrendous miss when he fired wide after Villa’s sub keeper Robin Olsen had spilled a header from the German winger.
Both sides had decent chances in an even opening period with Emi Buendia almost opening the scoring in the first minute with a shot tipped wide by David Raya before Emi Martinez denied Toney from close range.
Mbeumo and Mathias Jensen both should have done better with presentable chances before half-time with John McGinn almost finding the top corner with a superb curling effort that had Raya beaten.
Villa offered little going forward in the second period before Luiz pounced in the 87th minute when the Bees defence failed to clear a Lucas Digne cross and Buendia teed up the Brazilian to fire past Raya.
Former Bees striker Ollie Watkins, who was largely anonymous throughout, almost won the game in the final minute of injury time, but his header went just over.
Brentford: Raya, Hickey, Pinnock, Mee, Henry, Norgaard (Onyeka 45), Jensen (Dasilva 90), Janelt (Damsgaard 76), Schade (Wissa 76), Toney, Mbeumo.
Subs not used: Cox, Zanka, Ghoddos, Baptiste, Roerslev.
