Alexis Mac Allister fired Brighton to sixth in the Premier League by converting a dramatic added-time penalty to a 1-0 win narrowing Manchester United’s Champions League hopes with defender Luke Shaw paying penalty.
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Brighton avenged their recent FA Cup penalty shoot-out defeat to Manchester United after referee Andre Marriner was sent to the pitch-side monitor by VAR in the 99th minute, awarding a last-gasp spot-kick for a Luke Shaw handball.
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“In the end, if you can’t win because you can’t finish, you don’t lose,” Erik Ten Hag lamented. “If you get beaten, you want to have revenge,” Ten Hag warned pre-match. So it proved.
Brighton’s win over Man Utd keeps their European ambitions on track. However, United are in the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot and stays four points ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool, but now have only one game in hand.
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“I think there is a god of football,” the Brighton boss beamed. “We played a fantastic game.”
Erik ten Hag made four changes to the united team that beat Aston Villa with Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Fred, Antony and Martial coming in. Out went Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen, Jadon Sancho and Marcel Sabitzer.
Roberto De Zerbi swapped four. No Pascal Gross or Joel Veltman in the squad, with Solly March and Deniz Undav dropping to the bench. Recalls were handed to Kaoru Mitoma, Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo as well as an opportunity for teenager Facundo Buonanotte.
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The triumph represents the Italian’s twelfth league win as Brighton manager in his 26th game in charge, equalling the number of victories managed by Graham Potter in the entirety of last season.
Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi
“I am really happy, really delighted for the performance, for the result.“I think there is a god of football because we deserved to win in the semi-final and we lost on penalties, here we won with a penalty for us. In both games, I think we played better than United and the last result was unfair.
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“We deserved to win today and we deserved to win the semi-final,” De Zerbi concluded.
Ten Hag: We lost a bit of focus
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“In the first minute, we create a great chance but we do not score so we have to be more clinical with the chances that we create in the first half. “We had the chances, clearly. Antony, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Casemiro. One has to go in. But if you cannot win it because you do not take your chances, do not lose it. We gave away a goal, maybe we lose a little bit of focus. That cannot happen.
