Post Match report for the Brentford game - Saturday, 1st April 2023
PREMIER LEAGUE 22/23: Brighton V Brentford - 1/4/23 P26
* * * * * LONG COUNTDOWN TO SALVAGE A POINT * * * * *
RESULT: 3-3 ~ Mitoma, Welbeck, Mac Allister . (h-t 2-2)
VENUE: the Amex, Falmer - fourteenth home match of 26 fixtures to date . Sat 3:00pm.
BEFORE KICKOFF: Brighton fans were back in the community stadium after a last international break in March as Prem fixtures resumed ahead of very busy April & May during the run in.
Hope springs eternal that halcyon days of summer would be a celebration of recent past achievements.
WEATHER: sunny springtime . GATE: 31,493 . ATMOSPHERE: tales of the unexpected.
ROBERTO de ZERBI was gearing up for what lay in our immediate future, also for when, why and how dreams might become reality across forthcoming fixtures.
Time would tell as to outcomes.
RdZ selected tried & tested regulars from our full list of players, leaving other inexperienced and lightweight personnel on the bench.
INJURED: 14 Lallana 19 Sarmiento . REHAB: 15 Moder . SQUAD: 2 Lamptey 28 Ferguson
STARTING SHAPE: 4-2-3-1
TEAM . . . . . . . . . 23 Steele
. 34 Veltman 5 Dunk 6 Colwill 30 Estupinan
. 7 March 13 Gross 25 Caicedo 22 Mitoma
. . . . 10 Mac Allister . . . 18 Welbeck
SUBS: 20 Enciso (72), 40 Buonanotte (83), 21 Undav (83)
BENCH: 1 Sanchez (gk) 4 Webster 26 Ayari 27 Gilmour 29 van Hecke 49 Moran
GOALS:
0-1 - 10 . visitors led from a bullet header that deceived Steel and a fairly static domestic defence.
1-1 - 21 . MITOMA chased a route-one punt from Steele (while De Zerbi whistled an opportunity) to lob the goalie.
1-2 - 22 . visitors led again when the England international had time & space galore to pick a spot with defenders awol.
2-2 - 28 . WELBECK nodded a second leveller close to goal from a deep far-post cross by March.
2-3 - 49 . visitors led a third time at a set piece chip into the box that evaded defenders and Steele alike but not a Bee.
3-3 - 90 . MAC ALLISTER blasted in a spot kick following hand ball after an Undav strike that was confirmed by VAR.
YELLOWS: Mac Allister
CHANGES: 72 Enciso for Veltman . 83 Buonanotte & Undav for Estupinan & Welbeck.
FIRST HALF: against run of play the away outfit not only scored first but immediately resumed leading on being pegged back.
Hosts toiled to equalise once more and so on chances created found parity restored by the intermission.
SECOND HALF: travellers netted a third soon after turnaround and sat in awaiting the onslaught, content to counter as and when the ball fell to their feet.
Meanwhile the home side had to score four to win it and maintained a predictable modus operandi for ninety-plus minutes.
IN THE END: locals plan A appeared to have failed approaching stoppage time.
Plan B, if indeed there was one, seemed to be to repeat plan A until the law of averages produced a result consummate with basic stats.
NUMBERS: poss 73%-27%, on target 15-5, off target 18-2, corners 14-0,
fouls 16-10, yellows 1-1, subs 3-3, shape 4231-532 . . . . . gd15 pt43 po6
FS
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