LONDON (Reuters) -Brentford substitute Vitaly Janelt headed the equaliser deep into stoppage time to clinch a point for his side in a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace after a tight, tense Premier League encounter at the Community Stadium on Saturday.
The draw, which stretches Brentford’s unbeaten run in the Premier League to 11 games, sees Brentford remain in eighth place on 35 points, while Palace are 12th on 26.
Christian Norgaard had an early chance for the home side as the ball fell to him on the edge of the box in the seventh minute, but he pulled his effort just wide of the right-hand post.
A few minutes later Michael Olise registered the first effort on target for the visitors with a stinging shot that was comfortably saved by David Raya, but the game descended into a cat-and-mouse affair with both sides taking turns in possession but struggling to create decent goal-scoring chances.
Ivan Toney provoked an angry response from Palace defender Joachim Andersen in the 49th minute when he went down as he turned in the box looking for a penalty, with Andersen reading him the riot act as the referee waved away his appeals for a spot kick.
Eberechi Eze’s impact off the Palace bench was almost immediate, as he rose unmarked to head home an Olise cross from close range in the 69th minute, and Brentford did little to suggest that they would be able to pull back a goal.
The best chance of an equaliser in normal time fell to Toney but, rather than add to his 14 league goals so far this year, the striker blazed the ball over the bar as Brentford looked increasingly desperate.
With time running out, the Bees finally pulled off their great escape in the sixth minute of stoppage time as German midfielder Janelt headed in a cross form Bryan Mbueno to send the home fans into raptures and give the side an unlikely share of the spoils.
The result left Crystal Palace manager Patrick Viera exasperated as his side let slip another chance to record their first league victory of the year.
“When you look at the game overall, when you look at both teams, they didn’t create many chances,” he told a media conference. “When you score the first goal and you defend the way we defended today, you expect to take all three points.
“This is the frustration I have at the minute — a lot of games we have played lately, all we are missing is three points,” he added.
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; editing by Clare Fallon)
