Both Stoke City and Brentford will be looking to bounce back to winning ways when they lock horns in the EFL Cup fourth round at the bet365 Stadium on Wednesday, with kickoff at 21:45.
Stoke City made a solid start to their 2021/22 Championship campaign having won five and drawn six of their 11 opening matches maintaining playoff spots, but a three-match losing streak has seen them drop in the Championship rankings and currently sit in the 9th spot on 21 points.
Therefore, this will be a perfect distraction for Michael O’Neill’s men who need to find their foot in the coming weeks as a bizarre occurrence of seven teams being locked on the same points make matters look worse than they actually are.
Stoke managed to advance to this round following their impressive 3-1 win over Premier League outfit Watford in the third round, setting up a meeting with Brentford. Prior to that Stoke knocked out Fleetwood Town in the first round with a 2-1 win before ending Doncaster’s journey with a 2-0 win in the second round.
Stoke will want to progress to the quarter-finals and they face Brentford a side they have never lost to on their home soil in their entire history and have won two of their last three meetings against the Bee at bet365.
Meanwhile Brentford made an impressive start to their top flight campaign claiming 12 points from their opening seven matches that had them sitting in the top half of the table, but a run of defeats has seen them drop to the bottom half I the 12th spot.
However, Brentford displayed high-level and spirited performances in the narrow defeats against Chelsea and Leicester City and they still remain eight points clear of the relegation zone.
The Bees knocked out Forest Green with 3-1 win at home in the second round before running riot against Oldham in the 7-0 thriller that saw them book a place in the fourth round against Stoke City and Frank Thomas will also see this fixture a vital distraction from Premier League where they face Burnley in their next fixture.
Stoke vs Brentford head to head
Both sides have met in eight matches since 2015 with Brentford claiming four wins while Stoke have claimed two and there have been two draws.
- Brentford 2-1 Stoke 27/02/21
- Stoke 3-2 Brentford 24/10/20
- Stoke 1-0 Brentford 18/07/20
- Brentford 1-0 Stoke 04/01/20
- Brentford 0-0 Stoke 21/01/19
Home
- Millwall 2-1 Stoke
- Stoke 0-1 Bournemouth
- Sheffield 2-1 Stoke
- Stoke 1-0 West Brom
- Preston 1-1 Stoke
Away
- Brentford 1-2 Leicester
- Brentford 0-1 Chelsea
- West ham 1-2 Brentford
- Brentford 3-3 Liverpool
- Brentford 7-0 Oldham
Stoke City team news
Stoke will be without Tommy, Sam Clucas and Nick Powell due to injuries.
Brentford team news
Brentford will be without Shandon Baptitse and Yoann Wissa due to injuries. However, Brentford are expecting to be boosted by Vitaly Janelt’s return.
Prediction and odds
- Double chance
- Brentford win
- Both sides to score
