Match Preview: Bournemouth v Brentford | OneFootball

Brentford travel to Bournemouth in round two of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday evening at Vitality Stadium (7.45pm kick-off BST).

The Bees defeated Aston Villa 1-0 at Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, while Andoni Iraola's side beat Wolves by the same scoreline.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know before kick-off.

Pre-match analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: Expect late goals at the Vitality

Losing one world-class defender, let alone three, would be a blow for any Premier League side, but Bournemouth’s style of play under Andoni Iraola may help the Cherries overcome a summer of change.

The Dorset club have taken considerable strides under the former Rayo Vallecano manager and they recorded an impressive 9th-placed finish in the Premier League last season (the Cherries level on points with Brentford, but above them on goal difference).

A league double over Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, along with impressive victories over the likes of Manchester City, Newcastle and Manchester United, underlined Bournemouth’s capacity to go toe-to-toe against heavyweight opposition, but the downside of such success was that star players Dean Huijsen (Real Madrid), Illia Zabarnyi (PSG) and Milos Kerkez (Liverpool) were subsequently poached in the summer.

As Alex Smith of the Bournemouth Daily Echo mentions in his pre-match notes, the Cherries have big shoes to fill in defence and they are reportedly keen to add numbers at the back ahead of transfer deadline day.

However, while new additions may be needed to plug the gaps, Iraola’s Cherries very much defend from the front.

In fact, Brentford’s own backline are likely to come under considerable pressure during Tuesday’s Carabao Cup clash between the two sides, with the numbers suggesting that the Bees will not be given much time to settle on the ball at Vitality Stadium.

Iraola has spoken about the inspiration he has taken from Marcelo Bielsa, who he played under at Athletic Bilbao, and the Cherries’ attacking approach out of possession bears many of the hallmarks associated with the iconic Argentinian coach.

One of the best metrics to gauge a team’s pressing intensity is known as PPDA (‘passes per defensive action'), which measures the number of passes a team allows their opponents in their own half before they regain possession.

The basic idea is that the more intensely a team hunts down possession in their opponent’s defensive third, the fewer passes it will allow them in that area of the pitch.

Suffice to say, Bournemouth (9.9 passes per defensive action) topped the charts in the Premier League in relation to PPDA last season, ahead of Arsenal, Spurs (both 10) and champions Liverpool (10.3).

Despite their high-profile defensive departures, Bournemouth have retained the services of their formidable attacking spearhead of Evanilson, Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert - who all reached double figures for Premier League goals last season - and the latter is now back to full fitness after recovering from a calf injury he sustained in pre-season.

Marcus Tavernier struck early to earn the Cherries their first win of the season against Wolves on Saturday, but - last season at least - the south coast club were exceptional when it came to scoring late in games.

To underscore that last point, Bournemouth scored 20 of their 58 Premier League goals (34%) after 76 minutes in 2024/25, more than any other team in the division.

Up against a side with a pioneering playing style and a track record in the Carabao Cup, it would be handy to have access to some inside information - and Brentford may have just the man!

Dango Ouattara will be gunning to take down his former employers on his old stomping ground - and the Burkina Faso international will be full of confidence after scoring the decider and posting a series of outstanding stats on his debut for the Bees.

Scout report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Can Cherries make another step forward following best-ever campaign?

The days of not just financial insecurity, but the threat of extinction are - as everyone who loves football would agree - thankfully very much a thing of the past for Bournemouth.

That said, the 2008/09 season in particularly - where they started with a 17-point deduction and still stayed up by nine points - serves as an important marker in the south coast club’s long history; a painful memory, but a reminder things can always be worse.

And, equally, that there is always the potential for more. Who would have thought that just 16 seasons later the Cherries would have had, arguably, their best-ever campaign?

It started on something of a negative, when Dominic Solanke joined Tottenham, but Andoni Iraola’s side were in the top seven by Christmas, midway through an 11-game unbeaten run, which set a new club record.

Before that period, they had already beaten both Arsenal and Man City at the Vitality Stadium; during it, they sunk Tottenham and Manchester United, before sticking four past Newcastle - a result Iraola called “unforgettable” - and five last Nottingham Forest, when Dango Ouattara scored a hat-trick.

Iraola has long been cautious of talking up his side’s chances of qualifying for Europe and, again, he was not caught out, with Bournemouth finishing nine points behind Forest in seventh.

Even he could not deny his side made sizeable strides towards that becoming a possibility in future, though, as they set new top-flight club records for most wins (15), fewest defeats (12), most goals scored (58), fewest goals conceded (46) and most points (56), as well as matching their highest-ever finish (9th).

“I’ve really enjoyed it, this season with the team,” said Iraola after a final-day win over already-relegated Leicester.

"To finish the season outside of the top 10 would have been really unfair for us.”

There has been a busy summer of change in Dorset as they look to take things to the next level in 2025/26. Dean Huijsen’s move to Real Madrid kicked things off, before Jaidon Anthony, Milos Kerkez, Joe Rothwell, Mark Travers, Neto, Illia Zabarnyi and Ouattara were sold.

Losing both first-choice centre-backs and first-choice left-back, as well as three goalkeepers - including Kepa Arrizabalaga’s loan return to Chelsea - would typically set alarm bells ringing. But Bournemouth have reinvested so wisely that there has been so little reason for panic.

Amine Adli was part of the Bayer Leverkusen team that won the Bundesliga without losing a game in 2023/24, Adrien Truffert and Bafodé Diakité both played for France at the Olympics in 2024 and Ben Doak has come in from Liverpool with such a high level of potential.

The first points of the season came from the 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday, but they impressed in the opener against Liverpool, too.

Could this be the season Bournemouth take a step forward into the unknown?

In the Dugout

Andoni Iraola

A right-back by trade during his playing days, Andoni Iraola came through the ranks at Athletic Bilbao and made his debut during the 2003/04 La Liga season, following two years in the Segunda Division with Bilbao’s B team and a year with Basconia – effectively the club’s C team – before that.

Over the 10 seasons that followed his debut year, Iraola astonishingly missed only 26 league games, during which time he was part of the squad that finished as runners-up in the Copa del Rey twice, once in the Europa League and once in the Spanish Super Cup. Between 2008 and 2011, he earned seven senior caps for Spain.

He featured considerably less during 2014/15 - his final season at San Mamés – but captained Lehoiak in his final game for the club, in a third Copa del Rey final defeat, this time against Barcelona.

Iraola then signed for New York City of the MLS, where he spent 17 months, before retiring in November 2016.

Just over 18 months later, he was handed his first managerial role with AEK Larnaca, but lasted only until January 2019 after winning 12 of his 29 matches in charge of the Cypriot First Division club.

That summer, he joined CD Mirandés where, in his only season at the club, he masterminded a run to the semi-final of the Copa del Rey for only the second time in the club’s history.

In August 2020, he took over at Rayo Vallecano, whom he led to promotion from the Segunda Division in his first season in charge. Los Franjirrojos finished 12th in their first season back in La Liga and 11th in 2022/23, which led to an approach from Leeds United for Iraola, which was rebuffed by the club’s board.

However, he left at the end of the campaign when his contract expired and joined Bournemouth in June 2023.

The 43-year-old signed a new contract in May 2024, which will keep him at Vitality Stadium until next summer.

The Gameplan

With Alex Smith, senior sports journalist at the Bournemouth Daily Echo

Alex Smith, senior sports journalist at The Bournemouth Daily Echo, explains how the Cherries are likely to be set up on Tuesday night.

"Andoni Iraola’s style is pretty set," said Smith. "It is a 4-2-3-1 usually with quite a high press.

"He looks to win the ball high up the pitch and hit teams on the transition and the counter attack if they can. They scored their two goals against Liverpool from the counter attack, so that will be what they try and do.

"They try and play with a lot of energy. It may be slightly different to what it was at Anfield as there are a couple of injuries in midfield, so it is not really the first choice for those two holding midfielders, with Tyler Adams playing that anchor role and then Alex Scott and Marcus Tavernier dovetailing off that and playing a bit more flexibly in midfield.

"But I think it will be similar to what he does usually; there will be a lot of energy, a high press and hopefully lots of goals."

Previous starting XI v Wolves in the Premier League (4-2-3-1): Petrovic; Smith, Diakité, Senesi, Truffert; Adams, Scott; Brooks, Tavernier, Semenyo; Evanilson

Read our full interview with Alex Smith here

Team news

Squad "in a good place" for Cherries clash

Brentford head coach Keith Andrews provided an update on the availability of the squad going into Tuesday night's Carabao Cup tie.

"We have to take care of a couple who came off [on Saturday] for more of a precautionary thing as they build fitness, a couple who had slightly disrupted pre-seasons," said Andrews.

"But overall, the squad is in a good place and looking really healthy.

"We'll be strong. We're taking a squad down there which will be as strong and competitive as possible to try and win the game.

"The focus is on the group so Yoane [Wissa] won't be involved. Again, that's a decision around what I feel is best for the group."

Read the full Bournemouth v Brentford team news here

Match Officials

Salisbury in charge on the south coast

Referee: Michael Salisbury

Assistants: Daniel Robathan and Marc Perry

Fourth official: Farai Hallam

Michael Salisbury will take charge of a Brentford fixture for the first time since April 2024 on Tuesday evening.

The Lancashire-born official had the whistle for the Bees' 3-3 draw against Aston Villa on that day and was not appointed to be the man in the middle of a game involving the west Londoners throughout last term.

Salisbury refereed Burnley's 2-0 win against fellow promoted side Sunderland at the weekend, handing out one yellow card to the Black Cats' Simon Adingra.

Last meeting

Bournemouth 1 Brentford 2 (Premier League, 15 March 2025)

Brentford won 2-1 against Bournemouth at Vitality Stadium for the second-successive Premier League season in March.

A Vitaly Janelt own goal saw the hosts move in front on 17 minutes before Yoane Wissa headed the Bees level following a corner midway through the half.

Christian Nørgaard volleyed in the winner with 20 minutes remaining.