Slaven Bilić’s Baggies welcome a rival from last season as Brentford travel to The Hawthorns on Tuesday evening (ko 7pm) for a third-round tie in the Carabao Cup.
Brentford
Their last campaign
The Bees suffered an agonising blow at the final hurdle last season after being edged out 2-1 in the Sky Bet Championship Play-Off final against Fulham. Prior to their trip to Wembley Stadium, Brentford had taken the Championship by storm with their energetic style of play which their attacking line of Benrahma, Mbeumo and Watkins (commonly known as BMW) massively benefitted off.
Defeats against Cambridge and Leicester City knocked them out of both cup competitions in the early stages but their head coach, Thomas Frank, guided them to a largely successful season despite losing their chance of a spot in the top flight as they pushed Albion right to the very end.
In the dugout
Prior to his move to England as part of former boss Dean Smith’s coaching staff, Frank managed in his native country leading the Danish national side at youth level from U16, U17 and U19s. His first senior role came when local top-flight outfit Brøndby IF appointed him as manager where he enjoyed three years at the helm and came close to getting them into the Europa League group stages following a number of top-four finishes in the League.
The 46-year-old parted ways with the Danish side in 2016 and became assistant head coach to then-boss Dean Smith, but when he left for Aston Villa in 2018 Frank was promoted to his current role in charge of the first team.
One to watch
Bryan Mbeumo was part of a clinical array of attackers at Brentford’s disposal last season. As mentioned, the Bees’ ‘BMW’ trio were unstoppable at times and Mbeumo, who only joined the club last summer, proved to be invaluable with 23 direct goal involvements in 42 appearances, including one particularly important goal against Swansea which helped them reach Wembley.
Our last meeting
Kyle Edwards’ goal back in 2018 proved to be enough to secure a 1-0 away win against Brentford.
But the last encounter between the two won’t have lived long in the memory of Baggies fans who witnessed a 1-0 defeat to Thomas Frank’s side in what was Albion’s second match back after lockdown.
Stats
Albion
- The Baggies will be looking to maintain their recent goals-per-game ratio after netting a total of five in their last two matches.
- History favours Slaven Bilić’s men on home soil with Albion unbeaten in all 11 matches they’ve ever played against Brentford at The Hawthorns.
- Albion have scored six goals in their only two meetings with the Bees at home in the Carabao Cup, conceding just once.
Brentford
- Like the Baggies, Brentford have also scored five goals in their last two matches.
- But their history in the Carabao Cup isn’t favourable at this stage of the competition, having not progressed from the third round in the last five years.
- Last season’s record backs their ability to net away from home though, and with the exception of the Play-Offs, the Bees failed to score in just eight out of 23 away league matches last season.
Head to head
| Albion | Draw | Brentford | |
| League | 9 | 4 | 3 |
| FA Cup | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| League Cup | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Total | 12 | 4 | 4 |
Our one to watch
Hal Robson-Kanu was heavily involved during last week’s Carabao Cup match and will no doubt be important again this Tuesday.
Following Rekeem Harper’s opening strike, Robson-Kanu’s delightful curling effort doubled the advantage and bagged the Welsh international his first goal of the season.
The 31-year-old was Albion’s joint top-scorer in the League last year with 10 goals - a career high for goals in a season.
And after getting off the mark in the previous round, there’s no doubt he’ll be looking to contribute more to the cause and help the Baggies progress in the competition.
Follow the game
Supporters in the UK can watch Albion’s Carabao Cup third-round tie with Brentford (ko 7pm) on a live stream.
The match will be available on the Carabao Cup website for £10 and can be purchased here.
This is a brand new service for the 2020/21 season so supporters will need to register a new account on the site. Please note that you will not be able to log in with your My Albion account as the service is not being provided by the club.
If you have any issues creating your account or accessing the stream please contact carabaocupsupport@streamamg.com.
Before purchasing a pass please ensure your device meets the minimum operating requirements detailed below.
Operating Systems: Windows 8.1 or later, Mac 9+
Browsers: latest versions of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari (Internet Explorer and Opera are not supported for Live Video)
Mobiles & Tablets Operating Systems: Android 6+, iOS 9+ *some OS may still not be supported by manufacturer.
Please note WBA Radio will not be available for this game.
