Swansea v Brentford: Swans to book FA Cup quarter-final spot

Swansea v Brentford
Sunday 17 February, 16:00
Live on BBC One

Who wins battle between a swan and a bee?

Swansea welcome Brentford to the Liberty Stadium on Sunday afternoon with a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals awaiting the winner. And there's every chance of plenty of goals in this match.

Swansea, who made the quarter-finals last season before falling victim to Spurs, have won their two FA Cup matches this season by a three-goal margin. They eased past Gillingham 4-1 in the fourth round after coming away from Villa Park with a 3-0 third round success. The last side to win three successive FA Cup matches by a three-plus goal margin were West Brom en route to the semi-final in 2007/08.

Brentford too have been scoring and conceding aplenty this season. They came through the FA Cup third round with a 1-0 home win over Oxford and then were eliminated Barnet 3-1 in a replay, after the first match was 3-3. Over their last seven matches in all competitions the Bees have scored 20 goals and let in 11, keeping just one clean sheet in that period.

Brentford's away record is not great with only one win (against Rotherham) on their last 16 road trips, but they were only held to a clean sheet four times in that period. Both Teams To Score is an obvious route into this game and, as such, scorer bets are worth a look too.

Oliver McBurnie has 14 goals to his name this season, that's 10 more than his next best scoring Swansea teammate. And for the visitors, Neal Maupay has netted in all three of Brentford's FA Cup matches so far this season and is having a stellar 2018/19 with 18 goals. Ollie Watkins has nine goals and Sergi Canos five.

When the two teams met at Brentford in December the Swans emerged 3-2 victors. That's five wins on the bounce and Swansea also won the only FA Cup match between these two sides, a first round tie in the 1971/72 season, which the Swans won 3-2 after a replay. I think the trend will continue and picking Swansea to win this match with BTTS and Oliver McBurnie scoring at [7.55].

RECOMMENDED BETS

Back Swansea to beat Brentford, BTTS and Oliver McBurnie to score at [7.55] (best bet)