The Brilliant Brazilian Talent and Contradicting the Odds – Brentford's European Push

Over the midpoint of the campaign, The Bees find themselves in a dream scenario.

With four wins in their last five outings, and a Brazilian striker netting the goals, suddenly supporters find themselves drifting off with thoughts of trips to Milan, Munich and Barcelona next season.

A emphatic three-nil win over Sunderland moved Keith Andrews' side into fifth in the top flight – a place that was good enough to secure Champions League football last season.

Only table-toppers Arsenal have gathered more points over the past half-dozen matches.

There is a long way to go yet but the West London outfit are squarely in the race for continental football.

Few was envisioning this last summer.

Thomas Frank had left for Tottenham after seven years in charge, a period in which he had not only guided the club to the Premier League but also cemented them in the elite division.

Club captain their Danish midfielder left for the North London club and goal-scoring duo Bryan Mbeumo and Yoane Wissa – who scored a combined of 39 goals in 2024-25 – were out the door, joining Manchester United and Newcastle respectively.

Specialist coach Keith Andrews was elevated to replace Frank, while there was a notable absence of a centre-forward among the off-season arrivals.

A season of struggle, possibly even the drop, was widely predicted. But here we are in the new year with the club in the upper echelons.

So, how did they pull it off?

Igor Thiago's Historic Campaign

The club's decision not to bring in another striker was in part down to timing, with Wissa's move not going through until the final day of the window.

But they also were aware they had a £30 million striker already ready and waiting.

Igor Thiago joined from Belgium in the summer for a then-record fee, but was plagued by injury in his first campaign, going goalless in eight appearances.

Thiago has set about making up for lost time this season, though, with his brace against Sunderland taking him to sixteen league goals – the highest tally by a player from Brazil in a single English top-flight campaign.

Given the countrymen who have preceded him, that is a remarkable feat, especially with 17 games remaining.

"He's been a breath of fresh air," pundit Danny Murphy said. "He's physically intimidating, quick, powerful, but more skilled than people think. Good with his feet, either foot, he can score with both. You can see he's full of confidence. His statistics are fantastic. He must be so proud. That's a huge compliment to him."

That only Erling Haaland, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe have scored more in any of the continent's major leagues to this point shows the level he is operating at.

And it is not just the quantity but the crucial nature of the goals that have been so important for Brentford.

His first goal against the Black Cats was his 7th first goal of a game of the season. Considering how often we are told the significance of the initial strike in a game, having someone you can depend on to take that first big chance cannot be underestimated.

Before the game against Sunderland, no player to have attempted at least thirty efforts this season has a better shooting accuracy than Igor Thiago's 59.1 percent.

He finds the target. Achieve that consistently and the goals will – and have – come.

Given the hardships he had in his youth, where he worked as a bricklayer to support his family following the passing of his father, perhaps it should be unsurprising that pressure on the pitch is something he takes in his stride.

"The recruitment team deserve a lot of praise for the type of players they bring in and characters," the manager said. "It is really impressive. He is a really special person who has fitted into life very nicely. He has had to forge this path. He has worked for his journey and toiled. He has got serious grit about his personality. He is developing his abilities constantly and we are learning more and more about him. He is a largely complete centre-forward."

Andrews Showing Doubters Wrong

Igor Thiago is the headline act but Brentford are not and have never been a single-player team.

While they had key individuals – Ivan Toney, Christian Eriksen, Mbeumo and Wissa – under their previous boss, they were always seen as a team more effective than the sum of their parts.

The fear was that once the manager left, that may not be the case, and that the collective quality of their parts alone might not be enough to stay up.

Consequently, appointing their set-piece coach, with a blank managerial CV, and just a year at the club was seen by those outside the club as a huge risk.

A maiden role is a challenge for anyone, let alone when it comes in the world's toughest league and having made the jump from specialist coach to the manager's office.

But given that Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna was the only other option that Brentford looked at, they were clearly confident they had the correct candidate.

To date, as often seems to be the case with the brains trust at Brentford, it looks as if they were correct.

The new boss won just one of his first 5 league games in charge but big home victories against United, the Reds and the Magpies have followed.

Results that, following their brilliant recent form, could prove increasingly important in the pursuit for European qualification.

"We're in good form and playing really well. We are playing with courage and conviction in everything we do with or without the ball," he added. "We're pleased with how we are going but we want to keep improving."

In a league where fourth and 15th are currently separated by just a handful of points, they have no other option, because things could quickly look very different.

But, for now, The Bees are defying the predictions. And the longer that lasts, the closer to fruition those dreams of the continent will become.