Brentford 1 Aston Villa 1 (4-2): Bees win on penalties to progress in Carabao Cup | OneFootball

Brentford defeated Aston Villa 4-2 in a penalty shoot-out at Gtech Community Stadium to progress to round four of the Carabao Cup.

Aaron Hickey's first goal for the club - a fantastic volley - cancelled out Harvey Elliott's opener as the game ended 1-1 after 90 minutes.

In the shoot-out, Hákon Valdimarsson denied John McGinn and Matty Cash, with Fábio Carvalho, debutant Reiss Nelson, Yehor Yarmoliuk and Mikkel Damsgaard - the latter making his 100th appearance for the club - all converting from 12 yards.

Keith Andrews awarded Benjamin Arthur his Brentford bow in one of 10 changes to the starting XI from Saturday's 2-2 draw against Chelsea in the Premier League.

Sepp van den Berg was the only player to start in both games, while Vitaly Janelt made his first appearance since April, having recovered from an issue in his heel.

Elliott, making his full debut for the Villans, had the first sight on goal inside the opening 90 seconds as his speculative volley was comfortably dealt with by Valdimarsson, before the Liverpool loanee's cross from the left was headed wide by Pau Torres five minutes later.

After a strong start from the visitors, Brentford began to see more of the ball and had a chance of their own midway through the half. Dango Ouattara beat his man on the right wing before his cross was only half-cleared to Rico Henry. The left-back's shot was blocked away by former Bee Ezri Konsa.

The west Londoners went even closer a minute later. The returning Janelt sent an inviting corner to the front post, with van den Berg getting in front of two defenders to head goalwards, only for Marco Bizot to acrobatically tip it over the bar.

Ouattara continued to be the most likely source of an opener. Late in the half, he was freed on halfway by Kristoffer Ajer, before the Burkina Faso international drove forward and saw a powerful left-footed drive from distance blocked.

Villa took the lead on 43 minutes. McGinn robbed Janelt 25 yards out from goal, with the loose ball then falling to Elliott, who squeezed his first-time right-footed shot underneath Valdimarsson and into the back of the net.

Unai Emery's side were inches away from doubling their advantage early after the restart. Evann Guessand was released down the right flank, with the Ivory Coast international racing to the byline before pulling back across the face of goal. Van den Berg did enough to prevent Donyell Malen from applying the finish before Jadon Sancho hit the outside of the post from a tight angle.

Brentford equalised soon afterwards and, for the second game in succession, it came from a long throw-in. Frank Onyeka sent an arrow towards the six-yard box, which was met by the head of Pau, but it fell nicely to Hickey on the right side of the penalty area and he guided a superb volley into the top-left corner.

Another long throw nearly saw the Bees move in front for the first time. This time, Onyeka's throw was flicked on at the near post by Arthur, but it was clawed away by Bizot from underneath his own crossbar to deny the young centre-back a debut goal.

Brentford, as ever, continued to look a threat from set-pieces. The next, an outswinging Carvalho delivery from the right side, was headed over by Ouattara as the final 20 minutes approached.

It took a smart stop from Valdimarsson to prevent Villa from retaking the lead at the other end as he turned away Cash's back-post volley following a deep cross from McGinn.

Damsgaard looked to mark his landmark appearance with some trademark magic. Minutes after coming on, he nutmugged Boubacar Kamara on halfway before finding Carvalho to his left. The Portuguese forward saw a bending effort headed away before the Dane had a go from range himself, firing just over the top corner.

Valdimarsson denied a low Morgan Rogers effort from the edge of the area in the final minute of stoppage time to take the tie to penalties.

In the shoot-out, the Icelandic keeper pulled off two impressive saves from well-struck McGinn and Cash penalties, diving to his right to make both stops.

Damsgaard obliged with the winning spot-kick to send the Bees into round four.

Brentford (5-3-2): Valdimarsson; Hickey (Kayode 78), Ajer (Collins 52), van den Berg, Arthur, Henry; Onyeka, Janelt (Yarmoliuk HT), Milambo (Nelson 68); Ouattara (Damsgaard 78), Carvalho

Subs not used: Kelleher, Lewis-Potter, Jensen, Schade

Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Bizot; Cash, Pau, Konsa, Maatsen; McGinn, Bogarde (Kamara 74); Sancho (Buendía 74), Elliott (Watkins 67), Guessand (Jimoh-Alabah 80); Malen (Rogers 67)

Subs: Proctor, Mings, Digne, Borland

Attendance: 15,895

Andrews: We're growing as a group

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews gave his assessment of Brentford's penalty shoot-out win over Aston Villa on Tuesday night.

He said: "We started the game a little bit tepidly - I thought they dictated the tone of the game in the first 10 minutes.

"We mentioned the steps we wanted to take as a group, compared to a few weeks ago when we played against them here, when we were forced low; that was really early days for us as a group.

"Even though we made a lot of changes tonight, I feel as though we're growing as a group, we're taking steps, in terms of what we do with the ball, and we're definitely getting there.

"After the first 10 minutes of the game, we started to dictate a lot of it, we caused a lot of problems down the right, and we looked really, really, dangerous.

"I was very happy with the reaction after that, and then the reaction after going a goal down. I wasn't worried at half-time, to be honest, I felt confident that we'd get back into the game."

Valdimarsson: A great feeling

Hákon Valdimarsson reflected on his two penalty saves that helped Brentford progress to round four of the Carabao Cup.

“It was a great feeling, and I’m so just happy we scored every one of ours and won the game,” said the Iceland keeper.

“Manu [Sotelo, first-team goalkeeper coach] told me where to go every time. We looked at it together before the game so I’m just very happy I could save two of them.

On his conversation with Keith Andrews after the game, Valdimarsson added: “He was very happy with me.

“It’s just so nice to have a coach who trusts you this much and he plays me in the cup, so I’m very happy with that.”