05 October 2023 , 20:02
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Roberto De Zerbi's Brighton heroes fought back from 2-0 down at half-time to earn a priceless point in Marseille via Joao Pedro's ice-cold 88th-minute penalty.
Albion stood tall in the face of adversity after a catastrophic 90-second spell inside the opening 20 minutes - which included a wretched Lewis Dunk mistake - threatened to mar the club's first-ever European away fixture. Defeat would have left Brighton with a mountain to climb but their hopes of knockout qualification are still very much alive following this valiant fightback kickstarted by Pascal Gross.
Roberto De Zerbi had claimed the 6-1 defeat at Aston Villa would prove significant in improving the mentality of his squad - evidently he was undoubtedly right. This time around there would be no one-sided beatdown as Brighton bravely held their nerve after initially falling victim to one of Europe's most volatile atmospheres.
De Zerbi said defiantly: "I'm really proud of the performance today for my players after the 6-1 defeat at Villa Park. This reaction is incredible, it's great. In the end I'm very happy."
Former Newcastle defender Chancel Mbemba opened the scoring in the 19th minute when he gratefully dispatched Jonathan Clauss' fine cutback with aplomb. Moments later it was 2-0 when the hosts ruthlessly punished a rare but devastating mistake from Albion skipper Dunk, who got his legs in a tangle - allowing Amine Harit to advance and pull the ball back for Jordan Veretout to fire home in scrappy fashion.
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"We are not a big team yet, we are a small team and small club," De Zerbi later claimed. "We reached European competition playing very well but it's possible we suffered because of the atmosphere."
Mykola Balakin had been advised to check the monitor for a Brighton penalty - instead he awarded Marseille a free-kick following Jan Paul van Hecke's shove. Brighton's lack of European experience was telling but they soon grew into the game as Ansu Fati and Danny Welbeck forced two fine stops from Pau Lopez right before half-time.
The visitors' quality eventually shone through after the interval when Gross steered home from Kaoru Mitoma's pullback on 54 minutes to offer Albion hope. And if Dunk had cost Brighton a goal in the first-half, he certainly prevented another when he made two crucial blocks - the best of which stopped Vitinha from restoring Marseille's two-goal cushion.
Brighton, who frantically pushed for a leveller, were awarded a spot-kick with minutes to play when the excellent Tariq Lamptey was brought down by Clauss. Up stepped substitute Joao Pedro, who kept his cool under intense pressure as Marseille's ultras stirred up a thunderously chilling combination of whistles and boos.
Skipper Dunk was struck by an object thrown from the crowd but later soldiered on to see the job through. Sadly for the Seagulls, they remain bottom of Group B after AEK Athens and Ajax played out a 1-1 draw in Greece.