Brentford B suffered a defeat to Ukrainian Premier League side Kryvbas in their opening Mediterranean Cup fixture on Tuesday afternoon.

In a clash which offered the young Bees an opportunity to face off against senior opponents, Brentford were well beaten by Kryvbas, a side who are current league leaders in the top division in Ukraine.

Neil MacFarlane played a back three which consisted of Erion Zabeli, Val Adedokun and Benjamin Arthur with Kryeece Lisbie and Max Dickov utilised as wing-backs. Riley Owen partnered a trialist in the central midfield positions whilst Isaac Holland, Tony Yogane and Ashley Hay formed a front three.

Despite a positive opening five minutes from Neil MacFarlane’s side, Kryvbas took an early lead.

Central midfielder Djihad Bizimana received the ball from a deep corner before taking a touch and looping his shot over Vincent Angelini.

The young Brentford side had a tough challenge in front of them with Kryvbas utilising their physical presence early on.

Brentford grew into the game and had a good chance on 20 minutes when Yogane found Holland with a cross from the left flank, but the winger struggled to get any real contact on his shot.

Despite a positive spell from the Bees, Kryvbas doubled their lead when Maksym Zaderaka headed the ball powerfully into the top corner.

Brentford were struggling to deal with Kryvbas’ aerial presence, with the Ukrainian side scoring their third on 26 minutes after another header, this time from their captain, Viacheslav Riabov.

Owen thought he has pulled one back for Brentford when his free-kick from just outside the box went inches wide of the top left corner.

On the brink of half-time, the young Bees struck the bar when Lisbie found Hay with an excellent cross, but the striker wasn’t able to get over his header as the ball come off the bar.

The second half proved to be another tough one for Brentford with Kryvbas netting three more times as the senior side pulled away from the Bees.

MacFarlane’s players continued to work hard and showed excellent levels of desire despite the strong opposition in front of them.

Ethan Laidlaw came from the bench to pull back a consolation goal for the young side, the striker showed good levels of composure to score the final goal of the game.

FC Kryvbas: Makhankov, Riabov, Vilivald, Bliznichenko, Prykhodko, Bizimana, Bandeira, Tverdokhlib, Zaderaka, Lunov, Kozhushko

Subs: Khoma, Poniedielnik, Steckov, Beskorovaninyi, Dibango, Vakulko, Mykytyshyn, Sosah, Kuzyk, Abu, Tatarkov, Poe

BrentfordB: Angelini, Lisbie, Adedokun, Zabeli, Arthur, Holland (Laidlaw 56), Owen, Hay, Trialist (Booth 56), Dickov, Yogane (Morgan 56)

Subs not used: Tavaziva