Brighton loses 2-3 at home to Athens

With Kaoru Mitoma and others performing poorly, Brighton & Hove Albion lost its first European match in 122 years since the club was founded.

Brighton lost 2-3 in the first leg of Group B of the 2023/24 UEFA Europa League group stage against AEK Athens held at the American Express Community Stadium in Brighton, England on the 22nd (Korean time).

Brighton, which took 6th place in the Premier League last season, secured a ticket to participate in the Europa League along with 5th place Liverpool. This is the first time that Brighton, founded in 1901, has participated in a European competition.

In its first European competition in 122 years, Brighton was placed in Group B of the Europa League along with AEK Athens (Greece), AFC Ajax (Netherlands), and Olympique de Marseille (France). The first opponent was Greece's prestigious Athens, which boasts 13 Superliga Elada (1st division) titles. It was their home game, and they went into the game with confidence because they defeated Premier League's prestigious Manchester United 3-1 on the 16th.

However, the first European competition in the club's history was not easy. In the 10th minute of the first half, Athens scored the first goal from a corner kick. Defender Djibril Sidibe gave the team the lead by hitting Brighton's net with a powerful header, despite being far from the goal.

Brighton also launched a counterattack. In the 29th minute of the first half, Brazilian striker Joao Pedro fell inside the Athens penalty box, but the referee judged it to be a simulation to get a foul even though there was no contact and gave Pedro a warning. At this time, the VAR room made a different decision, and the referee accepted it, canceled the yellow card given to Pedro, and declared a penalty kick for Brighton.

It was Pedro who got the foul who took the kicker. Pedro scored the equalizer by completely deceiving the goalkeeper and cutting into the net with an accurate shot toward the left corner. As a result, Pedro became the star of the club's first goal in Brighton's monumental first European competition.

Just a moment of joy. Approximately 9 minutes after Brighton equalized, Athens scored again to take the lead. In the 39th minute of the first half, midfielder Mijat Gachinović returned the lead by sending a free kick into the goal with his left foot from a set piece situation.

Brighton, who finished the first half tied 1-2, had the opportunity to tie the game by scoring another penalty kick in the 20th minute of the second half. This time too, Pedro took a penalty kick and successfully handled the penalty kick himself, achieving multiple goals.

As the tense situation continued, Athens took the win in the 38th minute of the second half by scoring the team's third goal. Striker Alexander Fransson, who came on as a substitute, was in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper through a 2-on-1 pass with Niklas Eliasson. As the goalkeeper came forward, Fransson hit the net with a light kick with his left foot.

A whopping 13 minutes of extra time were added in the second half, but Brighton was unable to score a third equalizer and lost 2-3 at home to Athens. The Europa League Group B first leg match between Ajax and Marseille, held at the same time, ended in a 3-3 draw, and Athens ranked first in Group B with 3 points (1 win), while Brighton, who lost in the first leg, was ranked 4th. did.

On this day, Brighton was unable to reproduce the performance shown in the previous game against Manchester United, giving up 3 points to Athens at home. In particular, Pedro showed his outstanding ability by taking penalty kicks twice, but other players showed poor performance and were unable to prevent the team from losing.

‘Brighton Stormtrooper’ Mitoma also could not avoid criticism as he had a sluggish day. On this day, Mitoma attempted only one shot, and the only shot against Athens was blocked by a defender, failing to record a single effective shot.

In particular, he was unable to properly demonstrate his long-standing dribbling ability on this day. According to soccer statistics media 'FotMob', Mitoma attempted to dribble a total of 7 times in the game against Athens, but succeeded only 2 times, recording a low dribbling success rate (29%). As his poor performance was recorded, his rating was also criticized at 6.5 points.

BY: 안전놀이터