Sunderland survived a Brentford fightback as they booked their spot in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
The Black Cats scored three goals in the space of 13 first half minutes to take control of the tie and set up a last-eight meeting away at fellow top flight side Crystal Palace.
Regis Le Bris’ men started brightly although they had goalkeeper Melker Ellborg to thank for denying Brentford an opener. The Swede pulled off a fine, flying save to keep out Mamadou Sangaré’s speculative effort from just inside the area.
That proved crucial when Sunderland opened the scoring midway through the half. They counter-attacked from a Brentford corner and Chemsdine Talbi was on hand to tap in on the line after an initial shot from Joceline Ta Bi – a livewire all night – was parried right into his path.
One goal soon became two when Tymur Tutierov tapped in after more excellent work from the lively Ta Bi. And the Ivory Coast man was at it again to help make it 3-0. This time he whipped in a fine cross that was headed in by the lurking Malick Fofana.
Brentford pulled one back right before half-time as Callum Wilson – a former Newcastle man, no less – fired home from a few yards out.
The Bees gave it a better go after the break but couldn’t get past a dogged home defence until it was too late. Igor Thiago eventually reduced the arrears to just one but that was deep in stoppage time and Sunderland held on for the win.
Le Bris said post-match: “It is really positive. We are on a demanding journey, which is a new challenge for the club and the players, but I think the energy is getting better. We know that we have good players but this journey is really challenging, so they have to embrace that and they showed they are ready to do that.”
Brentford chief Keith Andrews said: “We were very ambitious in this competition to go as far as we could.
“It was a crazy game but we have to look at ourselves, how we conceded those goals. You can’t describe those 12 minutes of madness. I had full faith in the team, we see them every day in training and unfortunately those minutes have cost us.”
