Match Preview: Brentford v Sheffield Wednesday | OneFootball

Brentford are back under the lights at Gtech Community Stadium on Tuesday (8pm kick-off), as Championship side Sheffield Wednesday travel to west London in the Carabao Cup fourth round.

The Bees extended their unbeaten home run against Ipswich Town on Saturday, with Bryan Mbeumo's stoppage-time winner leaving them ninth in the Premier League with nine games played. Danny Röhl's Sheff Wed currently sit 13th in the second tier, after a 2-1 victory over Portsmouth on Friday night.

With analysis, team news, match officials and more, here's everything you need to know ahead of Tuesday's cup clash.

And you can be there to watch the Bees in action under the lights - secure one of the few remaining tickets now.

Pre-match Analysis

Alex Lawes, Playmaker Stats: Carabao Cup could be opportunity for Brentford's first-ever major honour

Brentford have a chance to reach the last eight of the Carabao Cup when they host Sheffield Wednesday at Gtech Community Stadium on Tuesday night.

And, gearing up for the fourth-round tie, there will be a growing belief that this could well be the year that Brentford genuinely challenge for their first-ever major honour.

Thomas Frank’s side have slowly gained momentum in the competition this season, with the Danish manager expertly shuffling his pack to blood new signings and young players while retaining an experienced core to his line-ups.

To this point, the Bees beat League Two Colchester United in the second round and come from behind to defeat League One Leyton Orient in the third round.

However, as we potentially inch closer to a date at Wembley Stadium, confidence and concentration on the competition will grow, with Brentford welcoming Sheffield Wednesday to west London this week.

Wednesday, coached by the exciting Danny Röhl, have steadied themselves after a difficult start, as they look to get back into play-off contention in the Championship.

The Owls, in some ways similar to Brentford, are very comfortable without the ball and can hurt teams in transition; their average possession share of 44.6 per cent is the joint-third lowest in the second tier so far this season.

The sense that the Sheffield side seek to be efficient and direct in transition is backed up by them recording the joint-most interceptions per game in the division with 11.3, level with Derby County.

Brentford will likely dominate possession, as Wednesday look to pick them off on the counter-attack; the encounter is likely to test the Bees’ ability to dictate proceedings with the ball.

Head coach Frank has spoken in the past about his desire to "add layers" to Brentford’s game and, this season, there have been positive signs that the west Londoners are comfortable switching between possession-based football and a more direct style.

Wednesday, on paper, appear well-equipped to soak up pressure and potentially cause an upset - but Brentford will hope to have evolved to a point where they can give Wednesday an extremely uncomfortable Tuesday!

The Bees currently have the best home record in the Premier League and have won five from six matches across all competitions at the Gtech this term. Tuesday’s clash, therefore, represents a magnificent opportunity to reach the last eight of a cup competition for just the sixth time in the club’s history and just the third time since 1949.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Sheffield Wednesday's incredible 12-month turnaround

Darren Moore's exit from Sheffield Wednesday only three weeks after promotion back to the Championship last May came as a huge shock to both Owls fans and the wider football community.

Regardless of the off-field disagreements between Moore and club owner Dejphon Chansiri, things seemed to be going pretty well on it. Throwing that all away and expecting a new manager to implement his own ideas successfully just 47 days before the new season seemed to just be asking for trouble.

Xisco Muñoz's name was fresh in the minds of Championship fans after he guided Watford to promotion in 2020/21, but, at this point. he'd only managed 92 professional games, of which he'd won 43. He didn't win another during his time at Hillsborough. In fact, the jovial Spaniard only picked up two points from his first 10 league games in charge.

By the time he was sacked on 4 October 2023, Wednesday were rock bottom of the Championship, seven points from safety. To make matters worse, less than a week earlier, Chansiri - unhappy with attitudes from fans towards him and his family - had said: "From now, I will not put additional money into the club." The excitement promotion brought had evaporated completely.

Danny Röhl - a relative unknown in the UK - was appointed during the October international break and lost five of his first six games in charge. They were still nine points from safety after the Boxing Day defeat to Coventry, but the new year was like a new season altogether for Wednesday.

They were very much swimming against the tide, but four straight wins between 17 February and 5 March did their survival hopes the world of good, as did winning four and drawing two of the final six. In the end, they completed 'The Great Escape' in the truest sense, with a three-point margin separating them from Birmingham, who took the final relegation spot.

"We said we maybe needed eight wins with 16 games to go but, if you look now, eight wins would not have been enough," said Röhl, speaking after the final day success over Sunderland. "We took nine wins from those 16 games, and I think the form table from those games shows us in the top three or four in the league. That says a lot."

Unsurprisingly - and deservedly - Röhl was rewarded for the incredible job with a new contract until the summer of 2027.

The momentum was seemingly carried into the new season when the Owls thumped Wayne Rooney’s Plymouth 4-0 at Hillsborough on the opening day. Three straight defeats to Sunderland, Leeds and Millwall brought them back down to earth, but it hasn't been anywhere near as disastrous as last term.

In fact, since 28 September, Röhl's side have won three and drawn two of their six league games, climbing up to 13th in the table as a result. The last was a 2-1 victory over Portsmouth, with Michael Smith scoring a stunning curling winner at Fratton Park.

When you factor in that this season’s Carabao Cup performance is the Owls’ best since they reached the quarter-finals in 2015/16, the recovery job has been an impressive one. What a difference a year makes.

In the Dugout

Danny Röhl

Danny Röhl played in the lower echelons of German football into his early 20s, but was already planning for a career on the touchline by the age of 19, when he began an undergraduate degree in sports science at the University of Leipzig in 2008.

In 2010, he started working for then-newly-formed RB Leipzig as head of youth analysis and worked in a variety of roles over the next eight years, which - after he completed a Master's in match analysis in 2017 - culminated in working as assistant to Ralph Hasenhüttl during the 2017/18 Bundesliga season.

When Hasenhüttl left Leipzig that summer, Röhl did, too. And when Hasenhüttl took over at Southampton in December 2018, he brought Röhl with him. As he continued to build up a high level of experience, between August 2019 and June 2021, he worked as assistant to Niko Kovač and then Hansi Flick at Bayern Munich. He was one of Flick's assistants during his time as Germany boss between September 2021 and September 2023, too.

In October 2023, Rohl signed a two-year deal to replace Xisco Muñoz as Sheffield Wednesday boss and take on his first senior management role. Taking charge when they were bottom of the Championship, seven points adrift of safety, he guided them away from the relegation zone before, eventually, finishing 20th.

At 35, Rohl is the third-youngest manager in the top four divisions of English football - after Watford's Tom Cleverley (35) and Brighton's Fabian Hürzeler (31) - and recently passed 50 games in charge of the Owls.

The Gameplan

With Andy Giddings, BBC Radio Sheffield

Andy Giddings, journalist at BBC Radio Sheffield, explains how Danny Röhl is likely to set up his Sheffield Wednesday side at Gtech Community Stadium on Tuesday.

"In an ideal world, I think Danny Röhl wants to play with a back four," he said. "But, fairly or unfairly, how he wanted to play at the start of the season against Leeds and Sunderland - who are top teams - did not quite work so, more often than not, he has gone with a back five.

"I would not necessarily think that would change for a cup game - and almost certainly not for a cup game against Premier League opposition.

"The personnel might change a little, but I would be surprised if it was anything other than three centre-halves, wing-backs and so on. Then you have Barry Bannan in midfield as the go-to guy and it will be interesting to see how he deploys people up front.

"There is Smith, who has had one of his typically solid away starts to the season, but there is also Ike Ugbo, who could probably do with some minutes as the big-money summer signing. So, one in attack with runners, which may well be the two lads from France and somebody like Josh Windass floating around."

Last Championship starting XI v Portsmouth (3-4-2-1): Beadle; Palmer, Bernard, Famewo; Valentín, Charles, Bannan, Lowe; Windass, Musaba; Smith

Read our full interview with Andy Giddings here

Team News

Frank: I will name very strong team for Sheff Wed clash

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank has revealed that he will name a "very strong" line-up for the Bees' clash with Sheffield Wednesday.

“The team news: everyone is available from the Ipswich game," Frank stated.

“The approach is that we will go very strong and we will take this very seriously - I have said that from the beginning of the tournament.

“I don’t know if you’ll be surprised, but maybe you will when you see the line-up we put out there tomorrow. It will be a very strong team.

“We’ve got big respect for the competition, we’ve got big respect for Sheffield Wednesday."

Match Officials

Finnie in charge at Gtech for first time since 2021

Referee: Will Finnie

Assistants: Stuart Burt and Daniel Leach

Fourth Official: Anthony Taylor

Will Finnie will return to referee at Gtech Community Stadium for the first time since 24 August 2021, when he was the man in the middle for Brentford's 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Forest Green.

That evening, he sent off Rovers midfielder Ebou Adams in west London for a foul on Vitaly Janelt.

This season, Finnie has taken charge of 11 games across the EFL, showing 38 cards and showing one red.

Last Meeting

Brentford 3 Sheffield Wednesday 0 (Sky Bet Championship, 24 February 2021)

Brentford completed a league double over Sheffield Wednesday with a well-deserved 3-0 win in west London.

Bryan Mbeumo put the Bees in front in a first half that was pretty even but saw the hosts have the better chances.

Thomas Frank's side had complete control after the break and goals from Saman Ghoddos and Mads Bech Sørensen sealed the win.