Schade on target as Brentford boost European hopes with win at Ipswich

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IPSWICH, England, May 10 (Reuters) - Brentford boosted their hopes of playing European football next season as they beat already-relegated Ipswich Town 1-0 thanks to a first-half header by Kevin Schade at Portman Road in the Premier League on Saturday.

With four successive wins, Brentford are eighth in the standings with 55 points from 36 matches. Ipswich sit 18th on 22 points with just four wins.

"(Europe) is extremely exciting. There is a lot riding on the next few games. Let's see what happens, depending on other things and it is one game at a time and the next one is Fulham," Brentford manager Thomas Frank told Sky Sports.

Ipswich had made a bright start to the game and came close to an opener after just three minutes but striker Liam Delap's header was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Mark Flekken.

But it was Brentford who took the lead when Schade met a corner from fellow forward Bryan Mbeumo in the 18th minute, steering the ball into the far corner after some confusion in the box.

German Schade has now scored four goals in his last three Premier League games, while Cameroon international Mbeumo became just the third player to be directly involved in more than 25 goals in the Premier League this season after Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah and Newcastle United's Alexander Isak.

Yoane Wissa nearly put Brentford 2-0 up minutes after the interval but the forward's effort was saved by goalkeeper Alex Palmer, who made another fine save to keep out Mbeumo's right-foot volley in the 73rd minute.

Brentford, who kept up the pressure and constantly looked dangerous, were denied a penalty in the 69th minute after Axel Tuanzebe pulled fellow defender Nathan Collins to the ground.

However, it was a far from comfortable afternoon for Brentford as Ipswich pushed for an equaliser late on with Flekken having to come to their rescue in added time when he made a brilliant point-blank save to deny centre back Cameron Burgess.

"We haven't given up and that is going to be really important to the next stage of the journey. We pushed really hard for the goal at the end and we didn't get it...," Ipswich manager Kieran McKenna told BBC Match of the Day.

Brentford, who have never qualified for Europe, next host 11th-placed Fulham on May 18 before taking a trip to 14th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers for their final game of the season on May 25.

(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)