Brighton snatch top spot after late winner against Marseille
With only a win enough to see Brighton get fast-tracked to the UEL round of 16, while sending Marseille into the knockout playoff round, the Seagulls began on top.
Simon Adingra landed the game’s first shot on target, but it was one to forget, going straight at Pau López.
There was always a sense that the visitors’ confident period would be short-lived, and at the other end, Marseille rattled Jason Steele’s crossbar bang on the quarter-hour mark as Jonathan Clauss’ shot from distance deflected off Pascal Groß.
At times, the first-half traffic was simply one-way, with Adingra a relentless livewire alongside João Pedro, who had scored the game-opener in his previous two goalscoring European appearances.
His determination to add to that record was clear to see, but he was well marshalled at every turn.
Meanwhile, Marseille’s likeliest hero was Clauss, who nearly managed to find a man in orange and black with a long diagonal ball into the box.
HT did nothing to disrupt the end-to-end flow, and a great run from João Pedro sparked the second act into life, as did a rasping drive from Billy Gilmour that was well held by López.
Kaoru Mitoma was also proving to be a growing influence, and shortly before the hour mark, he embarked on an impressive solo run to feed Adingra, but the Ivorian could only fire over by a mile.
Marseille then went straight up the other end, as Amine Harit fired a shot low towards the Brighton net, which saw the ball bounce off the post and cause a moment of panic.
With the three-quarter mark passed and still nobody blinking, Brighton boss De Zerbi deployed Evan Ferguson in place of the spirited but wasteful Adingra.
And while that got the AMEX Stadium crowd excited, Marseille continued to repel the Seagulls.
But Brighton finally found their way through the lines with three minutes of regular time remaining, as Pascal Groß played a snap through-ball to João Pedro, who fired into the top left corner to spark bedlam – a party that lasted long beyond FT, as Brighton’s golden era continued on a dramatic winning note.
Flashscore Man of the Match: João Pedro (Brighton & Hove Albion)
