Brighton’s Italian coach calls on supporters before the delicate championship match: “It will be tougher than against Ajax”
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– London (Eng)
“It’s like a final for us, it will be tougher than against Ajax.” Roberto De Zerbi has the Europa League in his rearview mirror and is looking straight ahead to Sunday’s match against Sheffield United. It is the 12th round of a championship in which Brighton are in 7th place with 18 points while their next opponent is bottom with 4 and fresh from their first victory of the season, yet the Italian coach underlines several times how important Sunday’s match is . “I have never asked the fans for anything, but this time we will need their support to win – he continues -. If we win, I think we can reach the next level in mentality. This is why we have to prepare as if it were a final.”
grow
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Improving, especially on a mental level, is one of the principles that De Zerbi preaches most. He repeats this to his players every day, especially in this historic season, in which Brighton competes in Europe for the first time: they play at a level that until two years ago this team, an example for many, could only dream of. Instead, now things like the double victory without conceding a goal against Ajax, one of the legends of European football, or playing on equal terms with Manchester City, champions of everything, are reality. “I think we can definitely play better – explains De Zerbi -. We are working less than last season, also because training is difficult. For example, the next match we have to prepare in one day and without being able to work with the players who were on the pitch in Amsterdam. But our improvement this season must be to adapt to the highest level: we don’t train as much as last year, we have more meetings, more matches. The challenge is to stay focused on the next match, not to keep your mind on the previous one, otherwise it is not possible to be competitive in 3 competitions.”
results
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That’s what Brighton are trying to do. In the first part of the season things went well in the Premier League and less well in Europe; in the last block of matches which ends with Sheffield there were two victories against Ajax which brought De Zerbi’s team to 7 points in the Europa League group and with their destiny in their own hands for the passage to the next round but a streak of 5 games without success in the championship. Where Brighton, who continue to play the best football in the Premier League despite injuries, are traveling at the same pace as last season at this point and have a run of favorable matches on paper with which to try to move to the next level. “However, we need to analyze the performances, not the results – underlines De Zerbi -. Against Fulham (1-1 on 29 October, ed.) we were unlucky because I think we played very well. And then we faced great teams. Like Liverpool (2-2, ed.) against whom we could have lost but also won. Manchester City and Aston Villa are used to playing European competitions and are different teams to us. I think we can consider ourselves satisfied with this first part of the season.”
principles
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De Zerbi has a deeper team than last year, more his own. One with which he is managing to make us forget the summer transfers of former pillars Mac Allister and Caicedo (“We are the only Premier team that has lost three important players and yet we are fighting three games a week” he remarked) and which continues to grow despite an impressive chain of injuries (Milner, Estupiñan and captain Dunk were sacrificed on the altar of the victory in Amsterdam, adding to an already full infirmary) while remaining faithful to the principles on which the extraordinary last season was built : revolutionary, attacking football, in which talents like that of Evan Ferguson, the 18-year-old “true centre-forward” who has just renewed until 2029, flourish, one in which every player feels part of the group. It is thanks to these principles that Brighton have arrived among the big teams in the Premier League, to challenge the big teams in Europe. Even if De Zerbi doesn’t want him to forget where the seagulls came from. “Brighton is thought of as a great team and this is a mistake,” he says. We must not forget who we were until last year, the history of this club.” One that he helped rewrite and to which he wants to add new chapters. But first there is the “final” against Sheffield United.
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