Brentford increased their hopes of qualifying for Europe for the first time as they beat a much-changed Manchester United 4-3 in a thriller at the Gtech.
The result moves Thomas Frank’s Bees up to ninth in the Premier League table, just one point behind Bournemouth, with three games left to play.
Conversely, it was Man Utd’s 16th league defeat of the season, their most since the 1989/90 season, when they also lost 16.
Since Ruben Amorim took charge on November 11, only the now-relegated sides Ipswich (3), Leicester (3), and Southampton (1) have won fewer Premier League games than United (6).
After United won the first leg of their Europa League semi-final 3-0 against Athletic Club on Thursday, Amorim rung the changes and named the third-youngest starting XI in Premier League history.
Sensing an opportunity as a result, Brentford pressed high from the off and should have been ahead when a Luke Shaw and Altay Bayindir mix-up led to the former almost heading past his own goalkeeper.
There was a brief boost when Mason Mount slid Alejandro Garnacho’s cross home against the run of play, but the Bees deservedly levelled when Mikkel Damsgaard poked a shot that hit the unfortunate Shaw, then Bayindir, then the net.
Within five minutes, the turnaround was complete. Man Utd switched off, wanting play to be paused when Matthijs de Ligt went down with a leg injury after a tangle with Yoane Wissa, but referee Anthony Taylor played on, so Christian Norgaard was able to pick out Kevin Schade to head home.
Only a last-ditch save from Bayindir to keep out Norgaard’s connection on Damsgaard’s free-kick prevented it becoming three before the break.
Yoane Wissa’s 18th Premier League goal of the season added the gloss for Brentford
United started the second half well, but found themselves further behind when Schade headed in a peach of a cross from Bryan Mbeumo, before the impressive Michael Kayode squared for Wissa to roll home and make it 4-1, with the goal confirmed after a VAR review.
Garnacho hit a stunner from the edge of the box, before Amad’s strike deflected off Sepp van den Berg to make it 4-3 and set up a tense finale, but Brentford held on for their third win in succession as their positive end to the campaign continues.
Frank: We’ve got momentum in European chase
Brentford head coach Thomas Frank:
“Basically, from the first year in the division, we respect everyone but fear no one. We believe that we can win every game.
“We try to go for that win. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, but we really, really, really believe it every single time. The players are fantastic. It is a fantastic group to work with.
“We spoke about it [Europe] before the Brighton game. I rarely say that to the players as it’s more about performance, but [I said] this game, we need to win. We have to win this if we want to be in with any chance of maybe having a dream about Europe. And the players did that, big credit to them.
“Then we played a difficult away game to Nottingham Forest, beat them, home to Man Utd, beat them. And all three wins, well deserved.
“We’ve got this momentum, hopefully we can keep it up. It’s all about getting the job done and it’s one at a time. We had a laser, laser, laser focus throughout four seasons on the next game. It’s all about the next game.”
Amorim: Defeat a good reflection of our season
Man Utd head coach Ruben Amorim:
“I think it reflected our season. We started quite well, controlling the game, not creating big chances but controlling the pace of the game. We suffered a lot with the throw-ins and set-pieces but we already knew that our team would struggle against this team.
“We didn’t have the height necessary for this kind of game. They scored twice in this kind of moments, even with De Ligt on the floor.
“And then in the second half I felt that we were near the draw and then we suffered a goal and like some other times we disconnected. And then another goal, almost three minutes, five minutes later. And then we pushed forward, tried to score, we scored twice but we didn’t have the time to do better.”
On playing youngsters: “They have to understand this season is really important also to understand that we cannot do this anymore. Of course, we know the context, but this kind of season we need to change that. They need to understand what it is to play for Manchester United.
“I think they did really well. They are not playing so much, but then they have to play 90 minutes because we have to change some other players to save them for Thursday.
“I think we can help the young kids even more, especially Tyler Fredricson did quite well in the third goal. He needs more help from Amad. So these small things I think we can help them more, but I’m really happy with the performance of the young kids.”
On De Ligt’s injury: “We don’t know what will happen with De Ligt. If we don’t have Luke Shaw available on Thursday we could have a problem and then we don’t have enough defenders for the game. We had to protect some players at half-time, thinking about Thursday. So it was just that, not about thinking about the game.”
