Andersen Secures Point For Palace At Soggy Brentford

These two sides are destined to remain in stalemate as they served up a fifth draw in five Premier League fixtures against each other as the Eagles return South with a well-earned point.

MATCH INFORMATION

• 3pm – 26th August 2023
• Brentford 1-1 Crystal Palace
• Gtech Community Stadium, Lionel Road South, Brentford TW8 0RU

PLAYER RATINGS

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 5 James TOMKINS, 17 Nathaniel CLYNE, 26 Chris Richards, 37 John-Kymani GORDON, 31 Remi MATTHEWS, 44 Jairo RIEDEWALD, 49 Jesurun RAK-SAKYI

OPPOSITION LINE-UP

UNUSED SUBSTITUTES – 13 Zanka, 20 Kristoffer AJER, 30 Mads Roerslev, 33 Yehor YARMOLYUK, 37 Michael OLAKIGBE,  38 Ethan BRIERLEY, 40 Ellery BALCOMBE

TEB VERDICT

This is a fixture that rarely surprised and the closest any team has got in the last five meetings to winning it is last season when the last kick of the game, the hosts equalised. This was another draw but Palace dug this one out in very damp conditions in West London. Described as a ‘colossus’ by Roy Hodgson, this was an outstanding performance from the Dane Joachim Andersen who was the man to find the equaliser for the Eagles when it looked like one would not come.

The visitors dug in and Eberechi Eze was the man that everything was going through to unlock the Brentford back line, but you have to say Palace did not offer a lot else from anywhere else on the pitch. If Eze isn’t going to do, Andersen did pop up this time, but you cannot bank on the Palace number ten to work his magic in every game as he will be marked man this season. Having said that, this is a good start to the season with a win and a draw away from home with the narrow defeat at home on Monday the only blot on the copy book.

POST GAME QUOTES

ROY HODGSON

“I thought in the first half we didn’t acquit ourselves as well as we could do. We didn’t concede many goal chances but they had the better of the play. For large parts of the second half, we were in control and got back into it. As for our goal, it is something I like to say we work on, but we don’t! In the end we were worth a point and probably in the second half shaded it.”

THOMAS FRANK

“Overall, a very even game. We were better first half, created a lot of opportunity situations without creating big moments. Second half was even in many ways, and we were passive in situations at times. They are another good team on the pitch. We lacked a bit of quality on the ball where we could have got out of certain situations.”

MATCH STATISTICS

POSITION IN THE TABLE (at the final whistle)

UPCOMING FIXTURES

29/08/23 Plymouth Argyle (a) – EFL Cup 7.45pm

03/09/23 Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) – Premier League 2pm

16/09/23 Aston Villa (a) – Premier League 3pm