LONDON, – Brentford striker Yoane Wissa netted a double as his side twice came from behind to grab a 3-2 home win over Bournemouth in a rip-roaring mid-table Premier League clash on Saturday.
Bournemouth were gifted the opener in the 17th minute as Sepp van den Berg’s disastrous back-pass went directly to Evanilson, and the Brazilian forward rounded the keeper easily before rolling the ball into the net to put the visitors ahead.
Stung by two stoppage-time goals in a 2-1 defeat at Fulham in midweek, Evanilson’s goal sparked Brentford into life.
They levelled in the 27th minute as a long throw caused chaos in the Bournemouth defence and Yoane Wissa made the most of the visitors’ inability to clear the ball by sending a header looping over goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga and into the net.
But the hosts still looked defensively shaky and went behind again shortly after halftime when Justin Kluivert scored, only for Mikkel Damsgaard to level again just over a minute later.
Brentford took the lead for the first time in the 58th minute after a slick passing move saw Wissa played in behind the defence and he coolly chipped the ball over the onrushing Kepa to make it 3-2 and calm the home side’s nerves.
With Bournemouth beginning to tire, Brentford continued to surge forward looking for more goals and the visitors struggled to hang on to the ball in their search for an equaliser.
They finally managed to create some pressure in stoppage time as Lewis Cook headed off the bar and Brentford’s defence made a number of desperate blocks to keep the lead intact.
“It’s a great reaction in many ways,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said. “It wasn’t perfect but the bounce-back mentality was unbelievably good. We played bad in the first 20 minutes, Bournemouth were better than us and we gave them the first (goal).
“After our goal, we stepped up and found our great mentality for the rest of the half which was even.
Second half we were clearly the best team on the pitch, we gave nothing away and were dangerous going forward.”
The win moves Brentford up to 10th on 16 points from 11 games, one place and one point ahead of Bournemouth.
“It’s frustrating because I think that, more or less, the game was what we expected. It was quite an open game with moments for both teams, but I think we’ve been better,” Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola told Sky Sports.
“We’ve been ahead two times and to finish losing this game, also considering the last chance we had, it’s a bad feeling because I think we played well.
“We had two very good chances from routines from corners, with one goal, but also we’ve conceded from a throw-in and then the kick-off after we scored to make it 2-1. After playing very well in the first half especially, to lose this game is hard.”