Brentford 2 Crystal Palace 2: Ouattara brace secures draw in final home game of season | OneFootball

Dango Ouattara scored either side of half-time to secure a 2-2 draw for Brentford against Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

Ismaïla Sarr converted an early penalty before Ouattara's inadvertent first, which was followed by Adam Wharton's long-range effort which put Palace back ahead. It took the hosts until the 88th minute to equalise again, when the Bees forward bagged his brace to bag a potentially valuable point for the west Londoners.

Keith Andrews made two changes to the starting XI for the game, with Vitaly Janelt and Ouattara coming into the team, while Aaron Hickey and Kevin Schade were named among the substitutes.

Brentford had the first chance of the game just 60 seconds into the contest, when Yehor Yarmoliuk ran the length of the pitch on the counter attack. Some clever play from Igor Thiago and Mathias Jensen saw Ouattara receive the ball on the corner of the six-yard box, but his shot was blazed over the crossbar.

Caoimhín Kelleher conceded a penalty in the fourth minute, when Sarr charged into the box and, after getting between the goalkeeper and Keane Lewis-Potter, was brought down. Referee Sam Barrott went to the monitor before awarding the spot-kick, which Sarr coolly converted from 12 yards.

Daniel Muñoz had a good chance to double the visitors' lead when Wharton was at the heart of a Palace counter, which saw the ball find its way to the right-back on the corner of the six-yard box. He fired a shot on goal, which Kelleher did well to parry away.

Wharton and Jørgen Strand Larsen both had half-chances, the first of which went over the bar and the second was comfortably saved, before Palace hit the crossbar on 15 minutes. Yéremy Pino aggressively won the ball back in midfield before playing in Sarr, whose effort rattled the woodwork.

Brentford began to control the game as the half-hour mark approached: Ouattara headed over from close range from a Janelt corner, and Dean Henderson somehow kept out Nathan Collins' point-blank effort before the linesman eventually raised his flag for offside.

Palace hit the woodwork again on 30 minutes, when Strand Larsen played a one-two with Sarr and curled an effort to the right of Kelleher. The goalkeeper was unmoved as it rebounded off the post and back to Tyrick Mitchell, and the Bees eventually scrambled it away.

The hosts were level just before half-time when Ouattara equalised - although he knew very little about it! Yarmoliuk whipped an incredible ball into the box, which was cleared by Jaydee Canvot directly onto the Bees man, with the ball deflecting off his head, past Henderson and into the back of the net.

Crystal Palace retook the lead just after half-time. Brentford had multiple opportunities to clear the ball but couldn’t, before Muñoz laid it to Wharton on the edge of the box; the midfielder drilled a low effort past Kelleher to score his first goal in a Palace shirt.

The second half was very stop-start, with the Bees struggling to find any sort of rhythm. The best chance of the second 45 to that point came in the 80th minute, when a corner was cleared to Jordan Henderson. The England international rolled the ball to Lewis-Potter, who tried to bend one into the far corner, but it whistled just wide of a diving Henderson’s post.

The hosts started to turn the screw, creating another chance from a set-piece. A free-kick was only cleared as far as Ouattara inside the area, but the Palace keeper prevented the forward’s brace as he palmed away his effort.

Ouattara did get his second of the afternoon minutes later, when a Michael Kayode long throw was flicked on by substitute Sepp van den Berg, with the Burkinabe on the goal line to head home the equaliser.

With the fourth official indicating 10 minutes of stoppage-time, Kevin Schade lashed an effort wide and Thiago fired over from inside the penalty area, meaning the spoils were shared at Gtech Community Stadium.

Brentford (4-3-3): Kelleher; Kayode, Ajer (van den Berg 82), Collins, Lewis-Potter; Janelt (Henderson 63), Jensen (Schade 63), Yarmoliuk (Dasilva 89); Ouattara, Thiago, Damsgaard

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Hickey, Pinnock, Nelson, Furo

Crystal Palace (3-4-3): Henderson; Riad (Lerma 74), Lacroix (Richards 61), Canvot; Muñoz, Kamada, Wharton, Mitchell; Sarr (Guessand 90+3), Strand Larsen (Mateta 61), Pino (Johnson HT)

Subs not used: Benítez, Clyne, Hughes, Devenny

Attendance: 17,123

Andrews reflects on Palace draw

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews reflects on Sunday's 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace.

He said: "The first 30 minutes, I thought they were the better side. Some of that was down to them, some of that was down to us, if we're honest; we didn't quite hit our performance levels and the basics that we speak about all the time.

"After that, I thought we finished the first half in a better and more positive way, we showed a lot of character.

"The second goal they scored, I thought it went against the run of play. But we then get the equaliser and do everything we can to get the winner.

"I feel nothing but pride every time I look at the boys because everything they do is with the right intentions."

Collins: A frustrating one

Bees captain Nathan Collins discusses the final home game of the 2025/26 season.

"It’s a frustrating one," said Collins. "I don’t think we started great and it took us a while to get in the game.

"In the second half, we improved a lot, controlled the game more and had the better chances.

"We threw the kitchen sink at it. We had a good few chances [to win the game] and on another day one of them goes in. Today, unfortunately, it didn’t.

"We’ll take the point and go to Liverpool. We’re optimistic, we’ll give it our all and we’ll have a right good go at them."