Brentford 3 Aston Villa 0: Lasse Vibe’s double eases Bee’s pain of losing Scott Hogan to Villa
Midlanders had signed their hitman for £15million earlier that day... but it did not seem to show as the hosts dominated
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LASSE VIBE hit a delightful double to ease Brentford’s pain of losing Scott Hogan.
Nico Yennaris also netted before half-time to help his side down the Midlanders who signed their hitman for £15million earlier that day.
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Villa fielded four January signings with debuts for Conor Hourihane and Birkir Bjarnason.
And the revamped side started brightly as Hourihane slipped in Jonathan Kodjia, who fired the wrong side of the post.
But from them on, the hosts dominated as Harlee Dean headed wide from Jota’s corner on 17 minutes.
Vibe made the breakthrough soon after, running onto Yennaris’ lovely through-ball, fending off defenders before cleverly dinking over the advancing keeper.
Brentford fans had been worrying who would get the goals after 14-strike Hogan left.
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With finishing like that, Denmark international Vibe was staking a claim to fill that void.
It was 2-0 13 minutes later as the excellent Jota whipped in a cross which Yennaris steered past Sam Johnstone. And Jota almost grabbed a goal before the break, running the visiting backline ragged before clipping the bar with a powerful effort.
Villa were chasing shadows after the break and Vibe found the net again to kill off Villa.
Josh McEachran nicked possession in midfield and played in Vibe, who kept his composure to slot past Johnstone.
It was his sixth of the season and prompted chants from home fans of ‘Hogan, what’s the score?’
When asked pre-match what Hogan will bring to Villa, Bruce replied: “He has got that hunger in his belly. He’ll give us something that’s been lacking.”
Based on this performance it will need a lot more than that.