Brighton 2-0 Brentford: Igor Thiago's 23rd-minute red card settles it early at the Amex

Brighton & Hove Albion beat Brentford 2-0 at the Amex Stadium in a game that turned on a single moment just after the quarter-hour mark. Igor Thiago was sent off in the 23rd minute, leaving Brentford to play more than two-thirds of the match with ten men, and Diego Gómez and a Pascal Groß penalty either side of that card did the damage for the home side.

Gómez had already given Brighton the lead in the 15th minute before Thiago's dismissal, and Groß doubled it from the penalty spot in the 42nd minute to make it 2-0 at the break. Brentford, already down to ten men, never found a way back into the game across the second half.

Match facts

• 15' — Diego Gómez (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• 42' — Pascal Groß, penalty (Brighton & Hove Albion)
• 23' — Igor Thiago (Brentford), red card

• 5' — Kristoffer Ajer (Brentford), yellow card
• 22' — Chema Andrés (Brighton & Hove Albion), yellow card
• 27' — Olivier Boscagli (Brighton & Hove Albion), yellow card
• 51' — Mats Wieffer (Brighton & Hove Albion), yellow card
• 61' — Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion), yellow card
• 69' — Kevin Schade (Brentford), yellow card

Line-ups

• Brighton & Hove Albion (4-2-3-1): Bart Verbruggen — Lewis Dunk, Luka Vuskovic, Olivier Boscagli, Costinha — Yasin Ayari, Chema Andrés — Pascal Groß, Charalambos Kostoulas, Maxim De Cuyper — Diego Gómez. Substitutes used: Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer, Georginio Rutter, Jack Hinshelwood, Malick Yalcouyé
• Brentford (4-4-2): Caoimhín Kelleher — Sepp van den Berg, Kristoffer Ajer, Aaron Hickey, Michael Kayode — Vitaly Janelt, Mamadou Sangare, Keane Lewis-Potter, Dango Ouattara — Kevin Schade, Igor Thiago. Substitutes used: El Hadji Malick Diouf, Yehor Yarmoliuk, Nathan Collins, Mathias Jensen, Callum Wilson

Two sides heading in different directions

Fabian Hurzeler's Brighton side came into the weekend having won four of their previous five league games, scoring 11 and conceding just two across that run, including wins over Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, with only a 0-2 defeat at Liverpool interrupting the sequence. A ninth league win from ten this season keeps one of the division's best defensive records intact.

Keith Andrews's Brentford arrived in solid if unspectacular form — two wins, two draws and a defeat across their previous five, a run that included a 1-2 loss at Liverpool and a 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest last time out — but the sending-off undid any chance of building on that at the Amex.

What's next

Brighton's win takes them to 22 points from 10 games, enough on this result alone to move into 2nd place in the table. Brentford remain on 14 points from 10 games, their goal difference down to around +5, still provisionally mid-table in the European-qualification picture but with work to do after a man down for the last 67 minutes.