Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hit City on the bre BEE STEPS T Aaland ng lanes eak TO HEAVEN
Brentford had a three-point plan to halt City a
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Foden 45+1 BRENTFORD 2 16, 90+8
BY GIDEON BROOKS BRENTFORD unveiled a three-point plan to beat Manchester City and went home with exactly that – three points.
In the build-up to Saturday’s daunting trip to the Etihad, Bees boss Thomas Frank identified the steps they needed to take to have any chance of springing an upset.
Step one: Stop Erling Haaland scoring. Easier said than done – only three teams out of 16 had managed it this season.
Step two? Keep Kevin De Bruyne quiet. Good luck with that – prior to Saturday he had registered either a goal or assist in 13 of his 17 games this season.
Step three: Hit City on the break. Ah yes, the same City who kept two clean sheets against Brentford last term.
Well, Bees managed their three steps to heaven and pulled off one of the greatest Premier League upsets in recent seasons.
Two goals from Ivan Toney just days after his World Cup snub may have been the headline act but a limpet-like marking job 2 from Ethan Pinnock and Ben Mee on Norwegian hit-man Haaland was just as influential.
Further up the field Mathias Jensen did such an effective job on De Bruyne that the midfielder got little change for all but the last 15 minutes.
It was quite a performance from Brentford.
Asked whether City had been flat and under par, Mee said: “Possibly they were. We created early chances and then we got the goal. Thing is, you always worry if you score too early that it may wake them up a bit. We were disappointed to concede late in the first half but we regrouped and defended really well for the majority of the second half and got a goal late on.”
City boss Pep Guardiola, who might have made better use of his bench, insisted before the game that none of his players would be thinking about the World Cup.
Yet it was hard to escape the
ng their minds were simply on this match. few of our lads are going to World Cup as well so it works ways I guess,” said Mee. ming here you expect them to te stuff, which they did, but ust kept them down.
We kept the big man quiet and De Bruyne quiet for most of well. than was brilliant up against and. That’s what we aimed o. The connection between ruyne and Haaland is clear e needed to cut that off and id it well most of the game.” ney, who might have had goals by the full-time whistle, ned the scoring after 16 minutes, beating Ederson with a header after a Mee assist (right).
He struck again in the eighth minute of stoppage time to finish a lightning counter-attack after City had pressed for a winner.
In between, Phil Foden had levelled on the stroke of half-time with a left-footed piledriver in to the top corner.
No wonder boss Frank (left) applauded his Brentford players off the pitch. This was one hell of a performance.
City go into the World Cup break a full five points behind Arsenal, who are showing no signs of stopping. Just how damaging will this defeat prove to be for the defending champions?