Post Match report for the Sunderland game - Saturday, 20th December 2025
PREMIER LEAGUE 25/26: Brighton V Sunderland - 20/12/25 P17
* * * * * THE XMAS WE DESERVE * * * * *
RESULT: 0-0
VENUE: the Amex, Falmer - ninth home match of 17 fixtures to date . Sat 3:00pm.
BEFORE KICKOFF: Brighton fans had seen Sunderland here only once before this century when entertaining them in the English League Cup during our initial Championship days of August 2011.
WEATHER: dry . GATE: 31,462 . ATMOSPHERE: slow to get the party started then hardly festive overall.
FABIAN HURZELER with a winless December record now wanted a football Xmas-fest with positive results from forthcoming scheduled yuletide events.
FH found a depleted squad from various issues and rolled the dice for selections from the available wider match-day group.
SQUAD: 38 McGill (gk) . BAN: 5 Dunk 25 Gomez . AFCON: 17 Baleba
ILL: 6 van Hecke . INJURED: 9 Tzimas 18 Welbeck . REHAB: 4 Webster 7 March
OOL: 3 Julio 16 Cashin 28 Ferguson 32 Sarmiento 33 ORiley 39 Rushworth (gk) 40 Buonanotte
STARTING SHAPE: 4-2-3-1
TEAM . . . . . . . . . 1 Verbruggen
. 27 Wieffer 42 Coppola 21 Boscagli 24 Kadioglu
. 11 Minteh 26 Ayari 13 Hinshelwood 29 de Cuyper
. . . . . . 8 Gruda . . . . . . 10 Rutter
SUBS: 34 Veltman (46), 22 Mitoma (64), 19 Kostoulas (71), 20 Milner (71), 14 Watson (87)
BENCH: 23 Steele 49 Knight 54 Simmonds 58 Oriola
GOALS: none
YELLOWS: Gruda 19, Coppola 34
CHANGES: 46 Veltman for Wieffer . 64 Mitoma for de Cuyper
71 Kostoulas & Milner for Minteh & Hinshelwood . 87 Watson for Gruda
FIRST HALF: momentum quickly fell away from hosts opening phase and visitors duly carried a threat thereafter.
At the interval it was still goalless and travellers were clearly superior on stats.
SECOND HALF: locals made a change in defence on turnaround.
Seagulls subs were inserted at intervals in order to get control and dictate play.
Momentum swung strongly towards hosts for the final half hour.
IN THE END: a clean sheet was positive but negatives included that consecutive fail to score stat.
NUMBERS: poss 56%-44%, on target 4-6, off target 12-8, corners 3-4,
fouls 11-15, yellows 2-2, subs 5-3, shape 4231-4231 . . . . . gd2 pt24 po9
FS
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