[Albion] Brighton & Hove Albion vs AEK Athens *** Official Match Thread ***

[dwayne]

I don't understand all the comments about prioritising the league (and not playing our best 11). What is the fecking point of getting into Europe and making history and making all the fuss if we're..... just going to then prioritise the Premier League?

Nah I don't agree with these people for starters de zerbis daughter was there tonight and she only goes to the 'important' games for her dad. So I think this meant a lot for Roberto.

I just think we wildly underrated them and were a little too complacent. We played a strong team but had no luck and it was just one of those days

 

[Weststander]

Nah I don't agree with these people for starters de zerbis daughter was there tonight and she only goes to the 'important' games for her dad. So I think this meant a lot for Roberto.

I just think we wildly underrated them and were a little too complacent. We played a strong team but had no luck and it was just one of those days

Weak defensively. No DM’ers and an old player at RB.

 

[dangull]

I don't understand all the comments about prioritising the league (and not playing our best 11). What is the fecking point of getting into Europe and making history and making all the fuss if we're..... just going to then prioritise the Premier League?

Probably a better chance of winning it and qualifying for the Champions League than getting there by finishing in the top 4 in the league.

 

[dwayne]

Weak defensively. No DM’ers and an old player at RB.

I havent seen one person mention caciedo or maccer today. We definitely missed them.

 

[tigertim68]

I havent seen one person mention caciedo or maccer today. We definitely missed them.

Don’t think we missed them , he just picked the wrong team

 

[Weststander]

I havent seen one person mention caciedo or maccer today. We definitely missed them.

There was one poster, not me.

Definitely, high class CM beasts who took it turns to protect the CB’s, plus they won back the ball all over.

We’ve gone from that set up/personnel, to zero defensive midfielders in some starting line ups. Gilmour’s creative, he hasn’t the power to win the CM battle over 90 minutes.

 

[nwgull]

Don’t think we missed them , he just picked the wrong team

Agree. We weren’t immune to playing badly with those two in the side. Both started in our defeats against Everton and Forest last season for example.

 

[Curious Orange]

It's been a while since our passing game has been that bad... But it isn't that anyone wasn't trying. Hopefully we can learn from this first European experience.

 

[METALMICKY]

Yep. They were good. Fair play to them. I liked their baldy on the right, with weird clipped crosses. They were neat and tidy on the ball too.

Glad it wasn't just me who appreciated them from Baldy.

 

[nwgull]

My boy was tuck on M25 was so bad he has had to turn round and go home

This happened to me, although I made KO. Making good time and got past Heathrow by about 3-15 and in the end didn’t make it to Mill Road until 7pm! A nightmare journey taking almost 5 hours to do the last 50-60 miles!

 

[AlexBH]

I thought their keeper was good. Made some very good saves, what was wrong with him?.

Their keeper was tiny in goalkeeping size and couldn’t catch anything it was always parried away. If we’d have just taken some pot shots from outside the box we could’ve comfortably won the game bc he looked their worse player.

 

[Psychobilly freakout]

I totally enjoyed our first foray into European football, we missed Dunk so much and we got caught out with quick clinical breaks and set plays, but that’s what we’re up against, too European teams with experience, we are good enough to still qualify, thoroughly enjoyed tonight despite the result.

 

[Robinjakarta]

Odd game, most disjointed performance I can remember for a long time. So little of the fluidity in possession we are used to.

A lot of credit goes to AEK for that. They marked us, pressed us and closed us down very quickly and effectively. But yes, we all know we can play much better than that.

 

[WhingForPresident]

Just got in. Bloody gutted (horrible journey and crap organisation at Mill Road didn't help) but it's not the end of the world. Got a feeling pretty early on that it wasn't going to be our day.

Having said that, the ref was a f***ing joke. The keeper should've been booked in the first half for timewasting. He obviously realised the ref wouldn't pull him up on it so continued to take the piss. I reckon the ball was actually in play for less than 60 minutes in total, they were blatantly time-wasting from the off. He must have forgotten his cards for the first half, then compensated by waving his yellow around at random in the second. He made Premier League refs look competent.

Not that that's why we lost, we just got done by a niggly, physical, well-organised side. We wouldn't have scored from open play if we were still out there now. Couldn't name one performance that was above 'meh' to be honest, we got what we deserved really.

Oh well, on to Sunday.

 

[heathgate]

We missed Enciso

 

[Quebec Seagull]

I got home in time to watch the 2nd half live. It looked like AEK followed the WH playbook to a tee. There was just so little space to shoot through when we were in the box. We still haven't found a reliable solution to the low block and killer counter-attack after controlling play for 10 minutes.

Call it our De Zerbichilles Heel.

.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Adingra looked good when he cqme on.

JPVH was decent but missed having Dunk besise him

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Yup. They were fantastic. Defended solidly, ran all night, broke with purpose. Three things we absolutely didn’t do.

Yes we missed Dunk. Yes the occasion got to us. But much of our downfall was our own.

March had his worst game under RDZ. Before the game in the Albert, I’d said to @jackalbion that we’d definitely play Milner because I thought we’d mostly signed him for European experience. “Just so long as he’s not playing right back” we laughed. FFS.

Our passing was appalling. Our chance creation was average. Our finishing was criminal.

Go one down against teams like Wham, Everton and Athens it is an uphill struggle against a packed defense with a constant risk of being done on the break.

Weirdly it seemed like today was like their cup final.

(ps - is it too soon to say that Fatty looks a bit shit?)

 

[AEK Melbourne]

Still pinching myself at this result, I must of woke up half of Melbourne. This was easily our best performance for the year, and it did look like your boys came in a bit complacent, but I'm sure they will learn from it and come out firing for the next match.
Ajax are not what they were a few years back and Marseille are good but not unbeatable. Here's hoping you give it to the French next game and we see both our clubs going through to the next round.
Catch you guys for the next tie in Athens, hope all of you who are going will enjoy your time when you head to Greece, wish I could be there for it.

 

[mile oak]

With Colwell and Dunk we were quality. When one wasnt playing it weakened us. Both not playing and it shows. Need another Colwell top quality CH urgently. RDZ aint gonna slate his players publicly but in truth he cant be happy with tonight. Too many average performances. I thought we wasted set pieces terribly then conceeded on theirs. Making hard work of Europe now. Gotta bounce back and smash Bournemouth.