- Kevin Schade’s first goal of the season opened the scoring in the 11th minute
- Djeidi Gassama equalised for Wednesday from long range just before the hour
- The first 10 penalties in the shootout were scored but Liam Palmer was denied
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For once it wasn’t a lightning quick start or a stoppage-time winner that sealed it for Brentford, but somehow the most dramatic finish of them all as the Bees needed penalties to beat Sheffield Wednesday to the Carabao Cup last-eight.
Thomas Frank’s team selection – only five changes from Saturday’s seven-goal thriller with Ipswich – was still a strong one, though he will have been hoping for a more routine win over the Championship outfit.
Ultimately, though, that decision was vindicated, thanks to Mark Flekken’s penalty save to deny Liam Palmer and send the hosts through.
It was a comparatively sluggish 11-minute wait for Kevin Schade to open the scoring, profiting from a very favourable deflection to finish past Pierce Charles at the second opportunity.
The 19-year-old goalkeeper was desperately unlucky as his save from the initial effort bounced kindly for the Bees striker off a defender, leaving the German an open goal to end his 16-game goalless run.
Mark Flekken’s penalty save on Tuesday sent Brentford into the Carabao Cup quarter-finals
Brentford beat Sheffield Wednesday in a penalty shootout after their game had ended 1-1
Brentford went 1-0 up on 11 minutes when Kevin Schade (left) scored his first goal this season
It was 1-1 in the 57th minute after Owls star Djeidi Gassama (right) scored from long range
Only two teams have seen less of the ball in the Championship this term than the Owls, and it will have been an all too familiar sight for the visitors on Tuesday, as the Bees poked, prodded and probed for an opening.
But it was a moment of Bryan Mbeumo brilliance that almost produced the second goal, with the Cameroon forward cutting inside from the right, flitting inside the box through two defenders, and lashing a shot that was well saved by Charles.
Sheffield Wednesday, however, were not reading the script. Out of nowhere, following almost an hour of pressure, Djeidi Gassama lasered one into the bottom corner from 25 yards for a shock equaliser.
Mbeumo was again denied by Charles, this time from the edge of the box on 62 minutes with a thunderous drive, before Jayden Meghoma zipped a cross past the goal mouth that needed just the faintest of touches – though none of his team-mates obliged.
Twenty-one-year-old winger Gassama celebrated his goal by putting his finger to his lips
The first nine penalties in the shootout all found the net, including one from Michael Smith
But Wednesday icon Liam Palmer, on his 450th appearance for the club, failed to beat Flekken
Flekken pictured celebrating with Brentford team-mate Yoane Wissa (right) after the shootout
The Owls rang the changes, sensing weakness but it was the hosts that came closest to the winner, with Schade denied from an acute angle on 80 minutes, but the visitors sent a warning shot of their own three minutes later through Marvin Johnson, which was tipped over by Flekken.
But penalties were required to separate the two, and after nine unerring, faultless strikes, Flekken leapt to his right to deny Palmer and rescue a result that really should have come far earlier in the encounter.
