Bournemouth 0 Brentford 2: Carvalho and Thiago goals send Bees into round three | OneFootball

Goals from Fábio Carvalho and Igor Thiago either side of half-time secured a 2-0 win for Brentford against Bournemouth, sending the Bees through to round three of the Carabao Cup.

Some solid stops from Hákon Valdimarsson capped off another good defensive performance from the west Londoners, who kept their second clean sheet in as many games.

Keith Andrews made nine changes for the trip to Vitality Stadium: Sepp van den Berg and Kevin Schade were the only players who kept their place from the win over Aston Villa on Saturday. Aaron Hickey was also in the starting XI, as he made his first competitive start since October 2023 due to injury.

Bournemouth had a good opportunity inside the opening two minutes, when Kroupi burst into the box at pace and got a shot away, but Valdimarsson got down to stop the ball well before van den Berg's intervention ensured there was no follow-up opportunity for the hosts.

Both sides had spells of possession, with the next big chance coming after 20 minutes - and what a chance it was. Carvalho picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, before jinking past two defenders, and closing in on goal. He initially opened up his body but then reversed his shot towards Djordje Petrovic's near post, however, his low effort dribbled just wide.

Moments later, Bournemouth came even closer. Julio Soler slightly cut in from the left, before firing a shot towards goal. His effort deflected off the back of Hickey and struck the post, before Ben Gannock Doak fired the rebound over the bar, but the new Cherries forward had already been flagged offside.

After his near-miss 10 minutes or so before, Carvalho opened the scoring for the visitors. A Rico Henry cross from the left was knocked down well by Kristoffer Ajer into the penalty area, and the onrushing Brentford forward got ahead of his defender and tucked it into the bottom-right corner.

Valdimarsson was called into action again just before half-time, when Alex Scott's inswinging cross evaded everyone inside the area but was destined for the far corner, only for the Bees keeper to get down well and push the ball away and out of danger.

Valdimarsson also had to be alert in the second half when Amine Adli - making his debut for Andoni Iraola's side - cut inside onto his left foot and fired towards goal; the Icelandic keeper dived down low, got his body behind the ball, and kept the visitors ahead.

The Cherries continued to push, and a Ryan Christie free-kick was met by the head of James Hill. Under pressure from Ethan Pinnock, the centre-back headed over the crossbar from close range.

Similarly to the first half, a Scott cross tested Valdimarsson again. This time, a Nathan Collins deflection diverted it up in the air, and it required the fingertips of the Bees' No.12, who touched it just over the bar.

Despite the pressure from the home side, Thiago doubled the lead for the visitors. Onyeka robbed the ball in the final third and played in Carvalho.

On the counter attack, the game's first goalscorer took his time and played it back to his team-mate, but a mistouch from the midfielder inadvertently saw it fall to Thiago, who had the relatively simple job of placing it into the bottom corner, scoring his second goal of the season.

Valdimarsson was determined to keep his clean sheet and reacted quickly to keep out Evanilson. The Brazilian slalomed towards the six-yard box and, with Henry closing him down, he got a shot away, which the Bees goalkeeper saved again.

Ajer did well to keep Evanilson out again, when the centre-forward crept in and fired past Valdimarsson, but Ajer was there to clear it off the line.

If there was any hope of Bournemouth getting back into the game, that diminished in stoppage-time when Julián Araujo was sent off for a second yellow card, after a very poor challenge on Thiago.

Some last-ditch defending from the Bees in the final minute of the game highlighted their impressive defensive display, keeping out another Evanilson effort.

Brentford: Valdimarsson; Hickey (Ouattara 59), Ajer, van den Berg, Pinnock (Thiago 59), Henry; Jensen, Onyeka (Yarmoliuk 86), Milambo (Kayode 59); Carvalho, Schade (Collins 59)

Subs not used: Kelleher, Lewis-Potter, Damsgaard, Peart-Harris

Bournemouth: Petrovic; Araujo, Hill, Diakité (Senesi HT), Soler; Christie (Adams 74), Scott; Gannon Doak (Semenyo HT), Adli, Kluivert (Brooks 66); Kroupi (Evanlison 66)

Subs not used: Dennis, Truffert, Smith, Tavernier

Andrews: The squad deserved it

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews shared his thoughts on the Bees' 2-0 win against Bournemouth in round two of the Carabao Cup.

"We knew it'd be a tough test for obvious reasons, it was probably as tough of a draw that we could've got away from home against a very good Premier League team," said Andrews.

"I wanted to utilise the squad this week because they deserve it. It doesn't really surprise me to be honest, it's what I fully expected; a performance to make me think about things going into the game against Sunderland. There were some outstanding performances.

"Playing three 90-minute games in the space of a week was always going to be difficult for everybody to do so early in the season, and I think you could see the commitment levels and the togetherness of the group was there in abundance.

"It's a carry on from the other day [against Villa] in terms of that solidity and that selfless nature of how we played the game."

Onyeka on Cherries win and Bundesliga loan spell

Frank Onyeka reflected on Brentford's 2-0 victory against Bournemouth and returning to the Bees' first-team squad, having spent the 2024/25 campaign out on loan.

“It was a good win away from home," said the Nigerian midfielder.

“The way we defended was good, the way we were compact; they couldn’t get anything in at the end so we could get the clean sheet.

“It was hard. We did the job the coach asked us to do and tried to cover the space in the middle with Mathie [Jensen]."

On spending last term on loan in Germany and being back involved at Brentford this season, he added: “I enjoyed my loan in Augsburg, I played every game and got to experience the Bundesliga which was really good.

“The coach [Andrews] keeps speaking to us, trying to help us, especially with me coming back from loan. He speaks to me almost every day and it’s what I need from a manager."