Brentford scrape through on pens against Sheffield Wednesday to reach last eight

Carabao Cup 4th round

Brentford (1) 1 Schade 11

Sheffield Wednesday (0) 1 Gassama 56

(Brentford win 5-4 on pens)

Wembley here we come. Well, why not? The Bees are just two matches away from a first ever major domestic final.

But they came mightily close to messing up on what should have been a routine assignment against mid-table Championship Wednesday. There was as much relief as euphoria as they came good in a spot-kick shoot out to decide the tie.

After nine perfect kicks - Bryan Mbeumo, Keane Lewis-Potter, Mikel Damsgaard, Yoane Wissa and Vitaly Janelt all netting from 12 yards for the Bees - Mark Flekken dived to his right to keep out the final Wednesday kick from Liam Palmer.

The Bees, fieldiing a changed but still-strong line-up, expected to get the job done with ease after taking an early lead through Kevin Schade.

But Wednesday dug in and eschewed ambition in favour of just staying in the game and it paid off when they scored out of the blue - a raking low shot from Djeidi Gassama beating Flekken inside his right hand post.

Unimpressive they may have been but they Bees are in the hat for the quarter-finals, and there is no reason why Thomas Frank's men cannot dream of going one better than a couple of years ago during the Covid shutdown when they lost a semi-final to Spurs at an empty Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The Owls had their own great moment in this competition when they beat Man United in the 1991 final and lost to Arsenal two years later. The Bees may feel this could be their time.

This was a game that felt ideal for a few players in need of minutes. Fabio Carvalho, Ben Mee, Jayden Meghoma and Schade were given starts - as had been the case in the victory over Leyton Orient in the last round.

But we also got to see Mbeumo - a little less dynamic than at the weekend but still the instigator of the best moments up front -and Wissa, who has been awarded the second goal from Saturday's win against Ipswich after it had originally be deemed an own goal. The striker came off the bench to help get the Bees over the live.

It had started very routinely. Lewis-Potter's lovely cushioned first-time volley set Schade away and the German made it count - with a stroke of good fortune as his first effort was saved by keeper Pierce Charles, only for defender Gabriel Otegbayo to inadvertently deflect the ball back into his path.

Wednesday only looked half interested in trying to spring a surprise. Their boss Danny Rohl kept many first teamers on the bench at the outset and they looked intent on keeping their shape and avoiding the concession of a second goal. That they did to good effect, but their rising confidence could not quite translate into a cup upset.

Bees: (4-2-3-1) Flekken - van den Berg, Collins, Mee, Meghoma (Roerslev 71) - Jensen (Damsgaard 60), Janelt - Mbeumo, Fabio Carvalho (Wissa 65), Lewis-Potter - Schade

Owls: (3-4-2-1) Pierce Charles - Otegbayo, Iorfa (Bernard 60), M Lowe - Paterson, Inglesson, Fusire (Palmer 60), Johnson - Musaba (Windass 69), Gassama (Smith 69) - Ugbo (J Lowe 69)

Attendance: 16,701