Ivan Toney, who plays for Brentford in the Premier League, gave his team a 2-0 victory over Brighton & Hove Albion on Friday night at the Gtech Community Stadium by scoring a goal with a deft backheel finish in the first half and adding a penalty kick in the second. The match was part of the Premier League.
The 26-year-old gave his hopes of being included in England’s World Cup squad a substantial increase with an excellent all-round show. This brought his tally to 55 in all competitions for the club to a total of 55.
During pregame warmups, the Brighton players wore t-shirts honouring Zambian teammate Enock Mwepu, whose professional career was cut short this week when it was discovered that he had a genetic heart condition. Mwepu was diagnosed with the condition earlier this week.
Moises Caicedo came close to giving the visitors the lead in the twenty-first minute, but goalkeeper David Raya deflected his twenty-first-minute piledriver over the bar, and he made another great stop from Joel Veltman from the corner kick that followed.
Toney then opened the score with a goal that may have been less stunning than Mbeumo’s volley, but it oozed brilliance. The volley was taken by Bryan Mbeumo of Brentford, who then struck the crossbar with it just before Toney opened the scoring.
The home team took the lead when Frank Onyeka sent the ball all the way across the field to Toney, who then used an amazing backheel to put the ball between the legs of the defender Adam Webster and into the back of the net.
Toney was brought down in the penalty area by defender Joel Veltman in the field in the 62nd minute, and the Englishman stepped up to confidently stroke home the spot kick to make it 2-0. The visitors were having trouble keeping up with Brentford at set pieces, and Toney capitalised on this by scoring the penalty kick to give Brentford a 2-0 lead.
The home team hung on for a win that moves them up to eighth place in the rankings with 13 points, one point behind seventh-placed Brighton. Despite having a lot of possession in the last stages of the game, Brighton was unable to get the ball past Raya as the home side held on for the victory.
The striker’s self-assurance is still quite high despite the fact that he did not receive any playing time with England’s national team during the last international break when they played Germany and Italy. He was a member of the England squad that travelled to both of those countries.
“I feel fantastic, I feel ready to go. It’s terrible that I didn’t make the team for England, but I’ll keep going, and I’ll keep training as hard as I can,” Toney said. It’s obvious that everyone is talking about the England affair.
It will be difficult to overlook him if he continues to score goals at the same rate as he did against Brighton.
