By Alessandro Schiavone in Brussels
Anderlecht 1-1 AEK Athenes (First-leg of the Conference League playoffs)
**Goals**: Dolberg 21' (Anderlecht), Eliasson (Aek Athenes) 74'
_Just when Brentford supporters thought it couldn’t get any worse this summer, they found out it can!_
_And things certainly seem to be conspiring against them._
_First Thomas Frank rocked the Bees to their core after the announcement he’d walk out to join Tottenham. His poignant exit will not just leave a huge managerial void but especially an emotional one. The way he bonded with the supporters and fired up the crowds, just like his calming influence and measured thinking, can hardly be replicated by someone else._
_Then it was talisman Bryan Mbeumo’s turn to move on after seemingly outgrowing the club._
_And if that wasn’t enough, Yoane Wissa did ‘an Isak’ by going on strike to force through a move to Tyneside. He even went as far as cutting the ties with the past, by removing everything associated with the club from his Instagram account._
_The 3-1 opening-day battering by Nottingham Forest was a prelude of the rocky times ahead._
_And yesterday night their ex-goalie Thomas Strakosha put in the kind of performance Brentford rarely saw due to his lack of game time at the Gtech between 2022 and 2024 with Mark Flekken the club's first-choice stopper._
_The Greek-born Albanian goalkeeper was restricted to only two Premier League performances in…TWO years!_
_And yesterday anyone watching AEK Athenes 1-1 draw against Anderlecht in Brussels wondered why he wasn’t used more._
_It was a game precision-engineered to feed Bees’ regrets in a summer of uncertainty and distress._
_An excellent low save after three minutes to deny Huerta was followed up by a mesmerising triple block. He left many fans open-mouthed. Especially the second from Dolberg which he blocked with his leg will grab all the headlines in the Greek newspapers today._
_There was nothing he could do to keep out Kasper Dolberg’s pile driver into the top corner though. Not even Buffon or Neuer would have had much of a chance.The Dane shot with real rage, almost as if he was fighting fire with fire. It would have surprised nobody if Strakosha had miraculously saved that one too as he looked insuperable. It was his night of grace where everything worked._
_After the interval, Strakosha saved Dolberg’s header before Thorgan Hazard wasted a good chance from De Cat’s pullback, by blasting over._
_If the hosts were only 1-0 up it was thanks to the former Bee who put in the kind of imperious performance that convinced Simone Inzaghi to give him his big break for Lazio as a youngster in 2016._
_Yet in football if you don’t kill off the game, you’ll be stung like a bee sooner or later._
_With over a quarter-of-an-hour to go, Eliasson’s volley into the far corner was a bolt of lightning out of a clear blue sky. Few saw that one coming._
_Anderlecht took it on the chin and went again but Angulo hit the post before Strakosha once more rose to the occasion by denying Hazard from range._
_“Believing is magic!” , the Coca Cola billboards at Lotto Park must have inspired Strakosha._
_But sadly for him nobody at Brentford had any belief in him._