Author – Amrit Santlani
Manchester United lost 1-0 to Brighton and missed the chance to move into third place in the Premier League on Friday. Alexis Mac Allister scored a last-minute penalty to secure all three points for Roberto de Zerbi’s men.
The visitors started the match on the front foot, and just a minute after the kick-off, Antony received a good pass from Bruno Fernandes, but the Brazilian striker shot wide of the Brighton goal. Then it was the Seagulls’ turn to attack. A poor pass from Victor Lindelof led to Kaoru Mitoma racing towards goal, but David de Gea sprawled well to keep the score at 0-0.
Casemiro also missed a glorious chance to put Erik Ten Hag’s side ahead, but the Brazilian midfielder headed over the crossbar from a corner. United’s attacks were successive, and Marcus Rashford was the next to be stopped by the excellent goalkeeper Jason Steele. Fred and Antony showed a great connection when the two Brazilians combined passes after a corner, the midfielder laying the ball off to Antony, whose shot on goal was well saved by Steele. Fred then released Martial just before the break, but the Frenchman’s shot went straight to Steele, who made another great save for his side.
In the second half, Mitoma ran at the visitors’ defense after a Brighton counter-attack, but De Gea made a great save from the Japanese striker’s shot. Casemiro had a chance to score after the hour mark, but his attempted shot from the edge of the box sailed over the goal.
In another Seagulls attack towards the end of the game, the ball reached the feet of Solly March, who ran at the United defense from midfield, passed two defenders after cutting inside, but shot wide.
March struck again a minute before the end of regulation time, Casemiro brought him down, but the ball fell into the path of Alexis Mac Allister, whose torpedo-shaped shot from outside the area reached De Gea at high speed, but he reacted quickly to make a crucial save.
With five minutes left on the clock, Brighton went on the attack in search of the winning goal after winning a corner. It was real pinball inside the United box, Bruno pushed away Mitoma’s long-range shot, the ball was kicked once more and Moises Caicedo was blocked by De Gea. The VAR showed that Luke Shaw had touched the ball when trying to defend the corner and De Zerbi’s side were awarded a penalty at the end of the game.
Mac Allister shot into the top left corner to score, sending the fans at the Amex Stadium into delirium, completing revenge for the FA Cup defeat, a game Brighton lost 7-6 on penalties.
“It hurts a lot, at the last minute. The last action, in fact. I got a little push, but of course my hand shouldn’t have been there. Of course, I take responsibility for that and I can take the blow. That cost us the game, and it’s difficult“Shaw told Sky Sports after the break.
“I’m not looking for excuses, but it’s impossible that it was a foul and that it led to a corner. So maybe that corner shouldn’t even have happened. I can’t change that. I’m not accusing the referee of anything. I confess. It was a silly mistake” he added.