AFC Sunderland 3-2 Brentford: The Black Cats edge past a squandering Brentford team to EFL Cup quarter-final

Sunderland ran out 3-2 winners in tonight's round four Carabao Cup game against a wasteful Brentford side.

Régis Le Bris's side lined up in a fluid 4-4-2, looking to use Jocelin Ta Bi and Malik Fofana's pace and creativity on both wings to get in behind the Bees' back four.

Keith Andrews men also lined up in the same formation, aiming to have their wide men Jaidon Anthony and Mikkel Damsgaard find Callum Wilson and Igor Thiago from crosses.

Brentford were the dominant side tonight, with the Bees forging 16 shots and 66% possession with several clear-cut chances early on in the match.

Speaking on his side's performance, Keith Andrews said: “I'm really gutted that we haven't been able to give the fans the result tonight that they deserve".

The Irish boss’s team began stronger than their Black Cats opponents with an early chance falling to Brentford's top goal scorer Thiago, with Haji Diouf crossing a low ball to the Brazilian number 9, only for his tame effort to dribble just wide of Mellker Ellborg's goal.

Vitaly Janelt minutes later delivered a dangerous corner onto the head of Jannick Schusters, who hung in the air to crash the ball into the crossbar as the ball fell back into the path of the Austrian, who squandered his follow-up.

A sign of things to come..

Diouf again flew down his left-hand side, firing off a shot that deflected into the path of new fan favourite Mamadou Sangare, who let an left-footed effort off to be parried over acrobatically by Schuster.

On the 26th minute, Diouf was clearly at the centre of everything as his meek header fell to Jules Ahoka, who found Habib Diarra, who shot low only for the ball to be parried into the path of Chemsidne Talbi, who opened the scoring completely against the run of play.

Moments later, Dmasgard found the ball at his feet following a square pass by Jaidon Anthony, which opened up Callum Wilson to bobble an effort over the Black Cats goal.

Three minutes after the opening goal, the home side exploited the defensive frailties of Diouf once again with Ta Bi beating his man to square a pass through to Timur Tutyerov.

Ten minutes on from the second goal, Tutyerov was played in behind once again who laid the ball back on the edge of the box to Ta Bi once again, who found Fofana to take the game out of sight before half-time.

This was a classic case of counter-attacking football, catenaccio defending, soaking up pressure and capitalizing on the counter-attack.

Ten minutes on from the second goal, Tutyerov was played in behind once again who laid the ball back on the edge of the box to Ta Bi once again, who found Fofana to take the game out of sight before half-time.

Or so it seemed..

The home side at this point had three shots on target and 3 goals; what more could the home fans want?

What they wouldn't have wanted was for a cross from Anthony to find Janelt, who eventually picked out Wilson to bundle in an effort in the 42nd minute.

The second half was similar to the first, but with much more resolute defending from the home side and more squandered opportunities from players like Damsgaard.

Igor Thiago must have thought he would not score at the Stadium of Light this evening after another effort was blocked, but in this case on the line.

However, as the second half dragged on, Mathias Jensen was introduced on the 59th minute and delivered a cross from deep for Igor Thiago on the 94th minute to hammer a header home, but ultimately it was too little too late.

This result means Sunderland will play away at Selhurst Park in December in the Carabao Cup quarter-final, and they will be scratching their heads at how they have found themselves in the quarter-final.

Keith Andrews, on the other hand, will be up at night pondering what could have been