{"id":395160,"date":"2026-01-08T12:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395160\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T12:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T12:45:10","slug":"brentfords-european-charge-defying-the-odds-with-a-brilliant-brazilian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/395160\/","title":{"rendered":"Brentford’s European charge – defying the odds with a brilliant Brazilian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brentford<\/a>‘s decision not to bring in another striker was in part down to circumstance, with Wissa’s move not going through until deadline day.<\/p>\n

But they also knew they had a \u00a330m striker already waiting to go.<\/p>\n

Igor Thiago joined from Club Brugge in July 2024 for a then club record fee, but was plagued by injury in his debut campaign, going goalless in eight appearances.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old has gone about making up for lost time this season, though, with his double against Sunderland<\/a> taking him to 16 league goals – the most by a Brazilian in a single Premier League campaign.<\/p>\n

Given the countrymen who have come before him, that is some accomplishment, especially with 17 games remaining.<\/p>\n

“He’s been a breath of fresh air,” former Liverpool<\/a> midfielder Danny Murphy said on BBC Match of the Day.<\/p>\n

“He’s physically intimidating, quick, strong, but technically better than people think. Good with his feet, both feet, he can score off both. You can see he’s full of confidence.<\/p>\n

“These numbers are fantastic. He must be so proud. That’s a big compliment to him.”<\/p>\n

That only Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe have scored more in any of Europe’s top five leagues to this point shows the level he is playing at.<\/p>\n

And it is not just the quantity but the timing of the goals that have been so important for Brentford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His first goal against the Black Cats was his seventh opener of the season. Given how often we are told the importance of the first goal in a game, having someone you can rely on to take that first big chance cannot be underestimated.<\/p>\n

Prior to the game against Sunderland<\/a>, no player to have attempted at least 30 shots this season has a better shooting accuracy than Igor Thiago’s 59.1%.<\/p>\n

He hits the target. Do that often enough and the goals will – and have – come.<\/p>\n

Given the struggles he had earlier in life, where he worked as a bricklayer to support his family<\/a> following the death of his father, perhaps it should be no surprise that pressure on the pitch is something he takes in his stride.<\/p>\n

“The recruitment team deserve a lot of praise for the type of players they bring in and personalities,” Andrews told Match of the Day.<\/p>\n

“It is really impressive. He is a really special person who has fitted into life very nicely. He has had to earn this path. He has earned his journey and grafted.<\/p>\n

“He has got serious grit about his personality. He is developing his skill set constantly and we are learning more and more about him. He is a pretty complete centre-forward.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brentford‘s decision not to bring in another striker was in part down to circumstance, with Wissa’s move not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-395160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}