Brighton, De Zerbi: “We are not ready for the leap”

Roberto De Zerbi wondered all year whether Brighton were ready to belong to that new level they had worked so hard to reach. In Rome, on the darkest evening of his English adventure, he had the answer in the form of a devastating 4-0 that was “difficult to accept”. No, the Seagulls are not ready for Europe, to play every three days without paying the price. “It’s different to play one game a week and play three – he reiterated on the eve of the Premier League match against Nottingham Forest, which precedes the return match against Roma, the last of the seagulls in the Europa League -. I’ve been repeating it all year that it’s a different sport, and maybe we weren’t ready, we weren’t organized in the right way.”

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De Zerbi underlined how all of Brighton were not ready for the big leap. He has actually repeated the concept from the beginning of the season, from that sprint start which suggested that the Seagulls could even improve on last year’s sixth place in the Premier League as they faced their first adventure in the cups in their history as second favorites for the Europa League , as the bookmakers had ruled before the start. “If you want to compete at this level you have to organize yourself, you can’t have the same mentality as two seasons ago or the previous season – he explained -. It’s different how you organize the team, the players you take, it’s different in all aspects, in rest periods, in the medical staff. We are paying a huge price for this, and accepting the defeat in Rome is difficult, painful for me and for the players. Instead we have to accept it, understand if as a team we want to compete at this level or settle for one match a week and go and play golf on Wednesdays.” De Zerbi doesn’t remove anyone from the dock, not even himself: “All the people who work at Brighton must learn from this season, first of all me – he said -. As a coach I made mistakes between January and March, playing every game with Van Hecke, Dunk, Gilmour, Gross and Igor: he made us reach the key moment of the season in less than good conditions. Of course, it was difficult to have five important players injured for months, because we are not used to playing every three days.” If the adventure in the Europa League is about to live its last act, with Thursday’s return against Roma, Brighton remains in the running to return to Europe from the Premier League, where they started the 28th matchday in ninth place. “I’m sure that the next time Brighton play in Europe, we will be ready to compete and better organised.”

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Meanwhile, Brighton have asked UEFA to investigate some episodes of the first leg match at the Olimpico. This is not a request to repeat the match or change the result, but rather an investigation that clarifies some episodes, mainly linked to the behavior of the Giallorossi fans towards the visiting ones. Brighton would have shown UEFA a photo of a homophobic sign that a Roma supporter would have shown to those of the Seagulls, at which bottles, coins and lighters would have been thrown. Brighton also asked UEFA to review the VAR procedure which led to the validation of Mancini’s goal, that of the momentary 3-0: in the videos examined by the English club, the Giallorossi defender appears to be offside, contrary to what was established by the video assistant to the referee. It doesn’t change the 4-0 with which Roma secured passage to the quarter-finals and the fact that Thursday’s match at the Amex Stadium will be Brighton’s last in the Europa League. A competition for which, according to De Zerbi, the club was not ready.