LIVERPOOL, England, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Brentford striker Igor Thiago netted a superb hat-trick as his side stormed to a 4-2 win at Everton on Sunday that moved them up to seventh place in the Premier League, strengthening their challenge to qualify for Europe for the first time.
The 24-year-old Brazilian forward started the season on fire, but hadn’t found the back of the net since November before breaking his goal drought in emphatic fashion on Merseyside to take his league tally to 14 goals for the campaign.
The visitors made their breakthrough early, winning the ball high up the pitch for Vitaly Janelt to pick out Thiago in the middle, and he steered a low volley past Jordan Pickford and into the bottom corner in the 11th minute.
Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleherpulled off a superb save deep into first-half stoppage time to deny Thierno Barry and though the home side came roaring out of the blocks in the second half, they were quickly derailed by a Nathan Collins goal from a corner in the 50th minute.
Thiago struck his second just over a minute and a half lateras Kevin Schade laid the ball off for him to score with another deft finish, with the Brazilian bizarrely choosing to celebrate with Everton striker Beto after a VAR review confirmed the goal.
Betogot a small measure of revenge by making it 3-1 to set up a grandstand finish but the space Everton left at the back allowed Thiago to bag his hat-trick with a coolly taken goal to complete a counter-attack launched by Collins.
Having previously been denied, Barry finally got on the scoresheet with a stoppage-time header, but he couldn't prevent Brentford from taking all three points as they moved to 30 points, with Everton two points further back in 12th.
Brentford boss Keith Andrews paid tribute to Thiago after his outstanding display of finishing.
"Strikers live and breathe them (goals) and get a lot of confidence from it. He’s played well without scoring recently, his performance today was sensational. He deserves the accolades," Andrews said.
The 45-year-old Irish coach was expected to struggle when he replaced Thomas Frank in June, but Brentford look like serious contenders for a European place.
"It’s about consistency. I feel the team and squad and club have taken good steps forward in the last few weeks. They have earned that, to play in this way," he explained.
"We are very respectful of each game, we just keep working hard, a real appetite to improve all the time and push each other and see where we go."
(Reporting by Philip O'ConnorEditing by Toby Davis)
