Brentford's unbeaten run ends 1-2 against Liverpool after finishing the match with nine men

Brentford's unbeaten start to the season ended 1-2 against Liverpool at the Gtech Community Stadium, and it ended the hard way: a red card right at the end of the first half, two Liverpool goals in the second, and a second red card in stoppage time that left the hosts finishing the match with nine men.

Keane Lewis-Potter had given Brentford the lead in the 44th minute, heading in Igor Thiago's cross to cap a first half the hosts controlled. Yehor Yarmoliuk was then sent off in the eighth minute of first-half stoppage time, and Brentford spent the rest of the game trying to protect a one-goal lead with ten men. They managed it until the 62nd minute, when Víctor Muñoz finished a move started by Florian Wirtz, and Alexander Isak put Liverpool ahead eight minutes later from Bradley Barcola's pass. Vitaly Janelt's second yellow, and second red of the afternoon for Brentford, arrived in the final minute of stoppage time with the result long since decided.

Line-ups

• Brentford (4-2-3-1): Caoimhín Kelleher; Kristoffer Ajer, Sepp van den Berg, Keane Lewis-Potter, Michael Kayode; Mathias Jensen, Vitaly Janelt, Yehor Yarmoliuk; Igor Thiago, Jaidon Anthony, Dango Ouattara
• Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson Becker; Virgil van Dijk, Jérémy Jacquet, Milos Kerkez, Ronald Araújo; Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister; Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola, Víctor Muñoz

Match facts

• 44' — Keane Lewis-Potter (Brentford), header, assist Igor Thiago
• 45'+8' — Yehor Yarmoliuk (Brentford) sent off
• 62' — Víctor Muñoz (Liverpool), assist Florian Wirtz
• 70' — Alexander Isak (Liverpool), assist Bradley Barcola
• 90'+2' — Vitaly Janelt (Brentford) sent off

An unbeaten run undone by two red cards

Brentford had not lost a Premier League game all season before kick-off: three draws and two wins through the first six matchweeks, including a 3-0 win over Chelsea next door in west London. That run, and the platform it had built them in fourth place, is what makes Yarmoliuk's dismissal so costly — it landed in the dying seconds of a first half Brentford had otherwise controlled, immediately turning a game they were winning into one they had to defend with a man fewer for the entire second period.

They almost got away with it. Ten men held out for seventeen minutes of the second half before Liverpool's extra body on the pitch finally told. Muñoz's finish arrived from exactly the kind of overload Brentford could no longer cover, and Isak's followed the same pattern eight minutes later. By the time Janelt picked up his second caution in the final minute, reducing Brentford to nine, the game had nothing left to decide — but it completed an afternoon that started with the hosts ahead and in control and ended with them a goal and two players short.

Liverpool's response

Liverpool arrived on the back of a 0-3 defeat at home to Manchester City in the Premier League and a 6-3 win away at LASK Linz in the Champions League in between — the kind of mixed run that has had them ninth in the table rather than challenging at the top despite sitting only a point off fourth. Going behind at Brentford, even against ten men, could easily have extended the inconsistency. Instead, Wirtz and Barcola both turned creator inside eight second-half minutes, and the numbers back up the complete shift in the game's balance: Liverpool finished with 59.9% of the possession and nine corners to Brentford's three, figures that owe as much to the extra man as to anything tactical.

What this does to the table

Brentford had gone into the weekend fourth on 10 points from six games, the division's form side on unbeaten alone; a first defeat, and a first sending-off of the campaign, drops them back toward the pack they had pulled briefly clear of. Liverpool had sat ninth on 9 points after Matchweek 6, level on points with three other clubs — three points from this result are enough to lift them back into the Premier League's congested midfield rather than its relegation-adjacent half.

What's next

Brentford, who finished this one with two men sent off, travel to Hull City on Sunday 25 October. Liverpool host Brighton & Hove Albion the same afternoon at Anfield, looking to build on a result that came from character as much as quality.