Roberto De Zerbi congratulated his Brighton players within the dressing room for his or her efficiency despite dropping 3-2 to AEK Athens on their European debut.
Despite dominating the ball and dictating the form of the sport in moist and troublesome situations on the Amex Stadium, Brighton have been undone by an AEK aspect who made the very best of what little they created and have been medical when their moments got here.
First, the right-back Djibril Sidibe dashed into the field unmarked at a nook and flew into an outstanding diving header that nestled within the nook.
It was a lead they twice ought to have doubled when striker Levi Garcia went by way of on purpose, first denied by goalkeeper Jason Steele then sliding the ball past the publish as two superb probabilities have been wasted.
Brighton hit again by way of a penalty from Joao Pedro after a VAR verify, the identical means by which they levelled for a second time after the break. In between, Mijat Gacinovic had restored AEK’s lead, sliding in at a free-kick to end from close to the penalty spot.
Brighton have been lacking the injured Lewis Dunk in defence and his absence was felt once more when substitute Ezequiel Ponce was given house on the counter-attack to win it for the Greek champions late on.
“We conceded three goals,” stated De Zerbi. “Two goals in set pieces and one incredible goal, the third. We made some mistakes in the (final third) of the pitch, for example the chance of Joao Pedro in the second half, or the chance for Igor in the first half. But in terms of quality of play we played a very good game, I think.
“I’m really proud for the performance. I think we showed not the right experience, or maybe not the same experience as AEK Athens.
“But for the rest I think we played with personality and with the right attitude. We controlled the game, we dominated the game. And we are sad for the result.
“We are sad because we couldn’t make happy our fans, ourselves, our club. But we have to analyse the performance and the performance was good.
“We can learn. We have to learn. We can improve, but it’s difficult to accept this defeat. I congratulated the players 10 minutes ago, because I can’t be happy when we win at Old Trafford and sad today if the performances are both good performances.
“We have to know, and we knew before the game, that AEK had two situations where they could score; set-pieces and counter-attack. And when we’re defending set-pieces against this team, we have to be more focused, more with the right attitude, more smart to defend the set-pieces.”
De Zerbi confirmed that Dunk and striker Evan Ferguson had been dominated out of competition earlier on Thursday.
“Dunk couldn’t play because after the game with Man United he felt a problem,” he added. “This afternoon Evan had a temperature, he is ill.”
AEK supervisor Matias Almeyda mirrored on a win which he hoped will assist cement his crew’s popularity as a severe European pressure this season.
“We work on the basis of playing a type of football based on team work,” he stated. “I live my life the way I manage the team. I like to respect people and I like to be respected. We want to be respected in Europe and we wanted to get a result to gain that respect.
“We have been working together for over a year. We came here in order to play our usual game. The opposition on a number of occasions forced us to play a different kind of game. But it’s spirit of the team, a fighting spirit, and that’s what we have managed to achieve. To keep on fighting.”
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