Wolves come from two down to claim point and dent Brentford’s European hopes
Igor Thiago had celebrated his first call-up for Brazil by putting the Bees 2-0 up.
Tolu Arokodare scored a late Wolves equaliser as Brentford let a two-goal lead slip to dent their Champions League challenge.
Igor Thiago had celebrated his first call-up for Brazil by putting the Bees 2-0 up against the Premier League’s bottom club after Michael Kayode’s opener.
But Adam Armstrong pulled one back for Wolves before half-time and, in a frantic second half, Arokodare hauled them level.
Rob Edwards’ revitalised side almost snatched a third straight win – and a first away from home this season – but Arokodare’s header thudded against the crossbar.
It was a match between the team trying to pull off the Premier League’s greatest escape and the side bidding to become the unlikeliest Champions League qualifiers – but unfortunately a draw was of little use to either.
A win for Brentford would have taken them to within a point of sixth-placed Chelsea and two behind Liverpool in fifth.
As if to prove that point, the club played a pre-match video montage of various pundits – Alan Shearer and Micah Richards among them – predicting they would be relegated this season.
They went ahead in the 22nd minute as Kayode, usually the player tasked with launching the ball into the box with his long throw-ins, got on the end of Keane Lewis-Potter’s cross.
The 21-year-old former Fiorentina right-back slipped in between two Wolves defenders to bullet a header home for his first goal in English football.
Thiago only learned of his international call-up shortly before kick-off and he was able to toast it in style after being set up superbly by Dango Ouattara.
Goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher’s clearance was brilliantly brought down by Ouattara – he of the failed Panenka penalty in the FA Cup at West Ham a week ago – who then burst past Yerson Mosquera before squaring for his strike partner to tuck away his 19th Premier League goal of the season.
Thiago almost had another before half-time from a Kayode long throw, flicked on by Sepp van den Berg, but his header clipped the crossbar.
Instead Wolves grabbed a lifeline – in the match at least – when Jean-Ricner Bellegarde strode forward and found Armstrong, who cut inside Nathan Collins before tucking away his first Wolves goal.
Edwards’ side are certainly not going down quietly and Armstrong had already struck a post before Joao Gomes swung in a cross and Arokodare stooped to powerfully head home.
Moments later the Nigerian almost won it for Wanderers, but this time his header crashed back off the crossbar, while for Brentford Reiss Nelson’s header was off target in stoppage time.
