Fabian Hurzeler acknowledged that Brighton was lucky to get a 2-1 victory over Bournemouth, to ignite the European expectations of his party and dent the same ambitions of their opposition.
Hurzeler's side took the lead in the first half by Joao Pedro from the penalty spot after the Brazilian striker was polluted by Kepa Arrizabalaga.
The visitors of Andoni Iraola, however, hit back in the second half due to a stunning attack by Justin Kluisivers, who became the first Bournemouth player who scored 10 Premier League goals in one campaign.
Danny Welbeck, however, stepped up to secure all three points for Brighton, with a left-hand foot finish only four minutes after replacing Joao Pedro from the bank.
Hurzeler was delighted that his side came at the top for three straight Premier League victories for the first time since September 2023, although admitted that Brighton was somewhat happy.
“It was a very intense competition, both teams tried to score and tried to win,” he told BBC Sport.
“The second half was an open game and in the end we were a happy winner.”
The south coast is * still * of us.
– Brighton & Hove Albion (@officialbhafc) 25 February 2025
Welbeck turned out to be the difference and scored his 30th Premier League goal for Brighton, the joint for the club in the history of the competition together with Pascal Gross.
“The most important thing for me is that he is there as a leader and so important for the young players,” said Hurzeler about Welbeck. “He does the right things and he got what he earned today.”
Brighton has won four on the bouncing over all the matches since their heavy 7-0 way to Nottingham Forest, making Hurzeler happy with the reaction from his side.
“We thought about the Nottingham Forest game and we were honest and took responsibility for the loss and tried to return to the basic principles, so the honor of the players and we are really happy with this reaction,” he said.
Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola insisted that he was satisfied with the performance of his team, despite the fact that he collapsed for a second consecutive league defeat after the 1-0 loss of Saturday for humble wolves.
“I am quite satisfied with the performance, but Brighton was much better with scoring and Danny Welbeck had a great finish,” Iraola told TNT Sports.
“We had clear opportunities, they didn't score and they let us pay. The second half we had been better, but we didn't score the second goal and we have to blame ourselves for how we defended their second goal – it's a game we had have to defend better.
“We thought we played well enough to get the points, but we were not as good as Brighton in the boxes and they were much better at achieving goals.”
Comments