No Panenka this time as Enzo Le Fée converted an 81st-minute penalty to earn Sunderland a 1-1 draw at Brentford.
It was only what the Black Cats deserved after a dominant but scoreless first half — with a goal disallowed — was followed by a largely Brentford-ascendant second half.
The Black Cats started with a lineup of Robin Roefs, Thomas Meunier, Nordi Mukiele, Kevin Danso, Dan Ballard and Reinildo in defence, a Granit Xhaka, Noah Sadiki and Le Fée midfield, and Nilson Angulo and Brian Brobbey leading
the attack.
What looked like a back five on the team sheet played out like the 4-3-3 Régis Le Bris prefers, with Mukiele at right back and Meunier in Trai Hume’s floating right wing/midfield position. The movement of the duo — who popped up all over the left, through the middle and even on the right at one point — as well as Le Fée seemed to keep the Bees guessing.
It also meant Angulo and Brentford’s Michael Kayode were basically playing one-on-one on the right — Sunderland continually fed Angulo down the right and the Ecuadorian looked more confident going forward than a week ago against Fulham.
He set up a Sadiki chance three minutes in and made several more dangerous runs that led to Black Cat opportunities, and also drew the foul that led briefly to a Sunderland goal.
Danso, making his debut, got underneath Xhaka’s long free kick and forced Nathan Collins to pop the ball up in the box, with Ballard beating his man and whipping it into the goal.
A VAR check for offside ended with Bramall ruling Danso obstructed the vision of Brentford goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher, though it’s unlikely a save was in the offing if he had “seen” it.
Sunderland kept up the pressure and in the nineteenth minute, Angulo fed Brobbey and his touch-out set up Le Fée, but his vicious strike rattled the right post.
Five minutes later, Brobbey knocked down a Xhaka cross for Sadiki, whose strike was headed in, but Brobbey’s momentum carried him into the path of the hit, both blocking it and drawing the offside flag.
Brentford had two decent chances in the half, the first five minutes in when a corner routine found Keane Lewis-Potter open, but his effort was blocked. At the other end of the half, Mamadou Sangare was free off a Lewis-Potter cross, but his header went pretty harmlessly back across the box.
Sangare — one of the revelations of the Premier League the first two weeks, was such a non-factor in the first half that he was hooked at the break, along with Kayode and Dango Ouattara — essentially the Bees’ entire right side — for Aaron Hickey, Yehor Yarmoliuk and Jaidon Anthony.
The changes worked out well for the Bees, who were all over the Black Cats from the jump. Five minutes in, Thiago dunked on Reinildo to force a Roefs save and eight minutes later, Brentford took the lead.
Mikkel Damsgaard’s dangerous cross forced an awkward headed clearance from Mukiele. Xhaka was slow to react, and Vitaly Janelt swerved a half-volley across his body into the net.
At that point, Brentford’s possession advantage in the half was 67-33, but by the end of the match, it would be down to 54-46.
Hume and Wilson Isidor replaced Angulo — a non-factor in the half — and Meunier at sixty three minutes, and a switch to a 4-4-2 put Brentford on their heels for most of the rest of the match.
Sunderland did have to survive one big let-off a couple of minutes later as Mukiele made an uncharacteristic mistake that allowed Thiago to slide the ball toward the front post.
Ballard, Roefs and Anthony all came together at roughly the same time, and the ball ended up over the line. VAR, though, came to Sunderland’s aid this time, ruling the ball was in Roefs’ hands, albeit lightly, before Anthony’s contact.
Malick Fofana’s Sunderland debut at seventy three minutes for Sadiki added even more to the Black Cats’ attack, and it was Fofana’s cross that forced Lewis-Potter to grab onto Isidor and earn the penalty.
Nine months after his failed Panenka drew so much ire from Sunderland supporters in a 3-0 loss in the same stadium, Le Fée beat Kelleher to the goalkeeper’s left to earn the away point.
