While Brighton & Hove Albion may be impressing us here in the Premier League, they’re yet to have their defining performance in Europe.
A defeat to AEK Athens in their opening game of their Europa League campaign was a disappointing one and that almost continued against Marseille last night.
A 2-2 draw in France ended up being a good result, particularly after being 2-0 down, but it seems L’Equipe were less than impressed by what they saw.
They cover the game today, mostly the disappointment from Marseille, who thought they were on their way to a rare bright spot this season and a first win under Gennaro Gattuso.
The newspaper says a result ‘would not have been stolen’ as they had ‘excellent ideas’ throughout the game and managed to implement them, helping them to dominate Brighton and lead 2-0.
They believe that the French side ‘had a boulevard’ to calmly launch their Europa League campaign but it was simply a lack of legs, and not Brighton’s performance, that saw Roberto de Zerbi’s side come back.
A point the newspaper thinks was probably undeserved, something reflected in their match ratings after the game as well.
The only Brighton man to come out with a respectable score was Kaoru Mitoma, who received a seven, while there were sixes for Pascal Gross and Lamptey. Everywhere else it was five, fours or in Danny Welbeck’s case, a three.
Only Pierre Emerick Aubameyang from Marseille received a three, everyone else was handed a seven, six or five, again further demonstrating that they believed Marseille were the better side in the 2-2 draw.
