Brentford open new stadium with Carabao Cup win against Wycombe

Brentford officially opened the doors to their new stunning stadium – but they needed penalties to edge past Wycombe in the Carabao Cup.

The Bees moved less than a mile down the road from their old Griffin Park ground into the state-of-the-art 17,500-capacity Brentford Community Stadium this summer.

Defender Ethan Pinnock had the honour of scoring the first goal in their new home after he powered in a first-half header.

Daryl Horgan levelled for Wycombe but Brentford held their nerve to win the shootout.

Bees boss Thomas Frank will be hoping his side can go one better this season after narrowly missing out on promotion to the Premier League last term.

Speaking about the new ground, he said: “It’s a massive boost. It’s the same feeling as to when you move into a new house.

“You miss your old house because there are loads of new memories but you have to move on because you have this state of the art stadium. We’re buzzing for it.”

Pinnock opened the scoring against the newly-promoted Chairboys with a 32nd-minute header when he met Mathias Jensen’s free-kick.

Wycombe were reduced to 10 men early in the second half when Dominic Gape was dismissed for a strong challenge on Jan Zamburek.

However, they levelled when Pinnock’s mistake let in Scott Kashket and he put the ball on the plate for Horgan to score and force a penalty shootout.

Nick Freeman and Kashket both missed from the spot as Brentford triumphed 4-2 on penalties.

Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma were again omitted from the Brentford squad as speculation over their futures continue.

Frank confirmed the Bees were willing to listen to offers for the in-demand pair.

He said: “I can stop all that talking and say: we know there a lot of rumours about our players because we had a top season.

“It’s no secret that Ollie Watkins and Said Benrahma are players that other clubs are interested in and if the price is right then we’re open for potentially selling them. The rest are not for sale.”