Wolves 3 – 2 Brentford

Wolves arrange an FA Cup derby showdown with West Brom after a battling additional-time win over Brentford.

Matheus Cunha’s penalty despatched Gary O’Neil’s facet by means of to the fourth spherical because the hosts ultimately sealed a 3-2 replay victory at Molineux.

Wolves hit again by means of Nelson Semedo and Nathan Fraser in regular time after Nathan Collins and Neal Maupay twice gave the guests the lead.

But Cunha’s additional-time spot kick booked a Black Country derby at The Hawthorns, the primary in three years, on January 28.

The Bees will likely be left with a clean weekend however will at the very least have Ivan Toney accessible having missed him throughout a barren winter, throughout which they’ve received as soon as for the reason that begin of November.

The striker completes his eight-month ban for betting breaches on Wednesday.

The 1-1 draw within the preliminary tie ended a 5-sport shedding streak for the Bees and confidence nonetheless appeared low till they scored in opposition to the run of play after 13 minutes.

Wolves had been within the ascendancy however have been caught when Kristoffer Ajer wriggled aim-facet of Matt Doherty.

His fierce effort was parried by Jose Sa however, when the ball was performed again in, Maupay’s shot was blocked and Collins bundled the ball in from six yards.

It was half redemption for Collins who endured a nightmare in opposition to his former membership within the Premier League final month, gifting them three objectives in a 4-1 defeat.

It did not deflate Wolves, although, and so they went near a leveller after half an hour.

Cunha cross discovered the unmarked Semedo and, with Thomas Strakosha stranded, the defender’s shot was blocked by Brentford’s massed ranks on the road.

The ball ran for Pablo Sarabia however he might solely put his effort into the facet netting.

Yet the hosts didn’t have to attend lengthy for a leveller six minutes later when Semedo reached Cunha’s flighted cross, his header was parried by Strakosha however he had the best of duties of tapping within the rebound.

It ought to have given Wolves the additional momentum however they have been behind once more six minutes after the break.

Keane Lewis-Potter’s cross prompted issues on the sting of the field and when the ball ran to Maupay he smashed in excessive from eight yards. The striker was initially dominated offside however, after a two-minute VAR verify, the aim was given.

Maupay has scored simply 4 objectives this season – and solely 5 since February 2022 – with two coming in opposition to Wolves after his strike within the authentic sport.

Brentford have been dreaming of the fourth spherical, which that they had solely gone past as soon as since 2006, and Mikkel Damsgaard curled a free kick at Sa.

But the tie continued to twist and Wolves levelled once more with 18 minutes left when substitute Fraser, on for simply three minutes, drilled into the nook.

A minute later the ahead ought to have put the hosts forward just for Strakosha to tug off an exquisite shut-vary cease.

From then additional-time loomed and Sa turned Shandon Baptiste’s effort onto the publish quickly after the restart.

But Wolves snatched a deserved win in stoppage time of the primary interval when Cunha transformed from the spot after Pedro Neto had been tripped.

O’Neil specializing in Brighton earlier than WBA match

Wolves head coach Gary O’Neil:

“As soon as we walked off I was thinking about Brighton [in the Premier League]. I understand fans will be excited, it will be a big atmosphere, it hasn’t been played with fans for a while.

“I can not wait to guide the workforce down there and see if we are able to progress once more. There’s a Premier League sport developing and I’ve a really small drained group to do some work with earlier than we go to Brighton.

“I have mixed feelings about the performance but I’m delighted with the win. The lads have worked unbelievably hard over the two ties. We’ve talked about taking the FA Cup seriously, we went down to 10 men at Brentford and tonight got a bit awkward for us.

“The gamers deserve credit score for the way they’ve approached the entire tie. We gave Brentford a little bit of a elevate by giving them two loopy objectives.”

Frank questions decision to award late penalty

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank:

“Tonight we did a whole lot of issues proper. The first half was a bit direct from our facet. I used to be more than happy with the second half and in additional-time. In normal we put a whole lot of effort into the sport and we might have received.

“The game was decided by a penalty which, in my opinion, is not there. Ben [Mee] clearly hit the ball into Neto’s feet. It’s difficult to make a call but unfortunately I can’t alter that.

“It’s huge [to have Ivan Toney back], little question. It’s like signing a Premier League striker who can rating 20 objectives as a result of he is proved it.

“Every team would be happy to sign a quality player like him. Ivan is a top player but he’s also very good at making the whole team better.”

What’s subsequent?

Saturday twentieth January 5:00pm


Kick off 5:30pm

Wolves return to Premier League motion on Monday night time as they go to Brighton & Hove Albion on the Amex Stadium; kick-off 7.45pm.

Brentford host Nottingham Forest on the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday again within the Premier League; kick-off 5.30pm, stay on Sky Sports.