Brentford 2 Crystal Palace 1
Thomas Frank opted for the same side that lined up against Wolfsburg in the Bees’ final pre-season friendly.
New signing Fábio Carvalho was named among the substitutes, while striker Ivan Toney wasn’t included in the matchday squad. "There's some transfer interest and because of that we decided not to involve him today,” Frank revealed before the game.
The Bees started brightly, moving the ball with confidence and winning an early corner, but the first chance fell to the visitors.
Eberechi Eze displayed some neat footwork before passing to Daichi Kamada, who sprayed the ball out to the right flank. Daniel Muñoz’s cross was flicked on by the towering Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell dragged across goal and wide of Mark Flekken’s left post.
On 15 minutes, Eze received the ball inside Brentford’s half and advanced to the edge of the area. Mitchell was in space to his left, but the England international chose to go for goal himself and saw his shot blocked by Nathan Collins.
Five minutes later, Flekken was caught in possession by Kamada and the ball was worked back to Eze 20 yards from goal. With Brentford’s no.1 out of position, Yoane Wissa made a tactical foul to bring down Eze and received a yellow card. From the resulting free-kick, Eze bent the ball around the wall and narrowly wide of the post.
Andersen’s first-time effort from 25 yards was held by Flekken as Palace continued to press forward.
Seconds later, in a moment of controversy, Eze snuck a long-range free-kick into the bottom corner but referee Sam Barrott spotted fouls on Collins and Christian Nørgaard and decided to blow his whistle before the ball had hit the back of the net.
Just before the half-hour mark, and perhaps against the run of play, Brentford took the lead. Nørgaard, Wissa and Mbeumo combined superbly down the right and the latter raced towards goal. Marc Guéhi stepped across to halt Mbeumo and narrow the angle, but the forward cut in on his left foot and drove hard and low beyond Dean Henderson.
Almost immediately after the restart, Mbeumo wriggled into space on the edge of the box and slid a pass into the path of Kristoffer Ajer. The Norwegian tried to lift the ball over Hendersen but the Palace keeper stood his ground and kept it out.
On 42 minutes, Nørgaard lofted the ball into the left channel to release Kevin Schade. In a move reminiscent of his goal in this fixture last season, the forward beat two defenders with a smart turn and pulled the trigger. On this occasion, however, his curling effort flew just wide of the far post.
In the final action of the half, Guéhi - who had been booked for a foul on Mads Roerslev moments earlier - played a long ball forward into the Brentford box. Kamada teed up Mateta with a short pass and the striker pulled his shot wide.
Brentford’s centre-backs combined deep in Palace territory at the beginning of the second half. Vitaly Janelt’s in-swinging cross from the right was flicked on by Pinnock and Nathan Collins, at full stretch, couldn’t quite manage to turn the ball towards the target.
On 50 minutes, a well-worked corner routine saw Adam Wharton collect the ball in space on the edge of Brentford’s box. The young midfielder’s powerful effort struck Roerslev and then Pinnock and dropped inches wide.
At the other end, Janelt peeled away from the crowd as Mbeumo delivered a corner to the back post and volleyed over the crossbar.
Flekken dived to his left to palm away Wharton’s 20-yard effort as the second half continued at a frantic pace.
Palace levelled on 57 minutes. Mitchell’s deep cross from the left was headed back across goal by Muñoz and Pinnock, in his attempts to clear, inadvertently put the ball past his own keeper.
Two minutes later, Odsonne Édouard – who had replaced Mateta at the break – lifted the ball over Flekken and into the back of the net but the goal was ruled out for offside.
On 64 minutes, Wharton again found space on the edge of the box and his fierce strike was pushed away by Flekken.
Five minutes later, Jensen protected the ball well on the edge of the visitors’ area before rolling a short pass to Janelt, who skewed wide of the target.
Édouard then cleared the crossbar with rising effort as the game entered the final 15 minutes on a knife edge.
And it was Frank’s side who seized the initiative. On 76 minutes, substitute Mikkel Damsgaard crossed from the right and Collins, on the turn, got a shot away that took a slight deflection off Muñoz. Hendersen clawed the ball away but only on to Wissa’s foot and the ball trickled over the line.
Collins then showed his worth at the other end, blocking Eze’s shot from outside the box which was then collected comfortably by Flekken.
The same trio were involved again seconds later. Mitchell worked the ball inside to Eze, the midfielder’s shot struck Collins and Flekken adjusted superbly to acrobatically tip the ball over the bar.
Jordan Ayew shot wide, and Eze saw another effort saved by Flekken – this time at his near post – as Palace pushed for an equaliser, but Brentford stood firm to take the points on the opening weekend.
Brentford: Flekken; Roerslev, Collins, Pinnock, Ajer; Nørgaard, Janelt (Damsgaard 73), Jensen (Carvalho 83); Mbeumo (Mee 90), Schade (Lewis-Potter 73), Wissa (Onyeka 83)
Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Yarmoliuk, Peart-Harris, Trevitt
Crystal Palace: Henderson; Richards (Sarr 84), Andersen, Guéhi; Muñoz, Wharton (Lerma 74), Hughes (Doucouré 84), Mitchell; Kamada (Ayew 70), Eze; Mateta (Édouard HT)
Subs not used: Johnstone, Schlupp, Clyne, Riad
Attendance: 16,988
