Bees meet Cherries in tight first leg
The stage is set, a place in the Premier League next season is at stake as the Championship playoffs begin on Monday evening. Dean Court will host the first encounter between Bournemouth and Brentford, the Seasiders have been strong at home this season but lost their final three matches of the league campaign, with manager Jonathan Woodgate’s deal only running until the end of the season. Brentford have been here before, back to back third placed finishes for Thomas Frank’s men, they got past Swansea City at this point last time around, before losing out to Fulham in the final. This one is, in the beautiful nature of the EFL, as evenly matched as you could possibly imagine.
Process
Brentford’s processes have been exemplary for the last two seasons and it feels inevitable that they will gain promotion to the topflight in the near future. The club have never been promoted via the playoffs in their history, but last term’s experience and heartbreak has to stand them in better stead. They rank top of the Championship for expected goals and finishing the season strongly with four wins on the bounce, Frank turned to an inventive 3-4-1-2 system that looks to be their best fit with the players available, the Danish tactician has the creativity and guile to pull the wool over the eyes of Woodgate.
After some worrying form that saw them drop out of the playoffs soon after Jason Tindall departed the dugout the Cherries picked up massively, recording seven wins in a row, the crash back into the playoffs looking one of the best teams in the league. On paper they are a class above, if the quartet of David Brooks, Arnaut Danjuma, Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke are firing on all cylinders it will be a very tough evening for the Bees.
Goals?
An unders punt was tempting but ultimately the lines are too short for me to get involved with such quality attacking contingents on show.
- Bournemouth have scored in six of ten.
- Bournemouth have conceded in nine of ten.
- Bournemouth have seen both teams score in five of ten.
- Bournemouth have seen over 2.5 goals in six of ten.
- Brentford have scored in eight of ten.
- Brentford have conceded in four of ten.
- Brentford have seen both teams score in four of ten.
- Brentford have seen over 2.5 goals in two of ten.
In a tough one to call, getting two results on side is always handy.
Post bet chat Marcus's Tips:
A disappointing loss considering it was a game of few chances. The clearest of which was missed by Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo.