Brighton 3-2 Spurs: The ultimate game of two halves
Oh to have been a fly on the wall in the home dressing room at half time of Brighton 3-2 Spurs. The Albion had been woeful enough for some supporters to wonder aloud whether Fabian Hurzeler was the second coming of Sami Hyypia.
Hyypia stuck religiously with his doomed attacking full backs system even though the world and his wife could see it was not working.
The same was being said of Hurzeler’s high line. Just like last week’s 4-2 defeat at Chelsea, Brighton were a shambles defensively through the opening 45 minutes.
Coming out after the break, the only hope the Albion had appeared to be keeping the margin of defeat respectable. It was that bad.
I don’t really know how to describe what happened next. Which is obviously a bit of an issue when you are attempting to write down what took place.
It was as if Hurzeler had hauled the 11 players who started the match in blue and white and replaced them all with identical look-a-likes who had 100 times the ability and actually knew how to play football.
There have been some memorable Albion comebacks over the past 30-odd years. Recovering from 3-0 down to draw 4-4 with Colchester United on Boxing Day 1997 is an afternoon none of the few thousand people who traipsed to Gillingham that day are ever likely to forget.
Then there was the time in 2008 when Brighton came from 2-0 behind at half time to beat eventual League One title winners Leicester City 3-2 at Withdean.
Several hundred Seagulls supporters headed home at the break with the task looking utterly hopeless. One took to North Stand Chat on their way back, starting the infamous “Just back from the Leicester game” thread. Arguably the greatest moment in NSC history.
This comeback was up there with the best of them. Whatever Hurzeler said at half time – along with bringing on Pervis Estupinan – worked a treat. More of that from this point on and we hopefully won’t need to think about Hyypia again.
Spurs had numerous opportunities to take the lead before they eventually did. Dejan Kulusevki had a shot deflected for a corner. Adam Webster blocked from Timo Werner and a low cross into the box was just out of reach of Brennan Johnson.
All of that took place in the opening nine minutes, after which Webster limped off injured. Tellingly, nobody connected with the Albion tried to use the disruption caused by an enforced change in defence as an excuse for why Brighton were so all over the place.
James Maddison had the ball in the back of the net but Pedro Porro strayed marginally offside in the build up. Spurs would not be denied for long, however, deservedly taking the lead when Dominic Solanke found Johnson to give the visitors a 23rd minute lead.
Going behind briefly stirred Brighton into life. Or to be more precise, stirred Kaoru Mitoma into life. Guglielmo Vicario pushed away a Mitoma cross and Danny Welbeck somehow missed from six yards when teed up by the Japanese Bullet Train.
But Spurs continued to look dangerous going forward, adding their second goal eight minutes before half time. Georginio Rutter lost the ball in a dangerous position, followed by Maddison shooting straight through Bart Verbruggen.
It was a terrible piece of goalkeeping which killed any momentum the Albion were beginning to build at the other end. If Jason Steele makes the same mistake, some Seagulls supported would demand he be publicly hung, drawn and quartered outside Churchill Square.
The stroke of half time should have seen Johnson kill the game off. He escaped Ferdi Kadioglu, only to shoot over. A huge let off for Brighton.
The turnaround from Brighton 0-2 Spurs to Brighton 3-2 Spurs started with the second half only 180 seconds old.
Anyone taking their time over a half time pint would have missed Yankubu Minteh scoring his first Albion goal, firing into the bottom corner after Spurs failed to clear a Mitoma cross.
Next came Rutter showing magnificent strength before finishing past Vicario. The architect was again Mitoma, this time via a beautiful defence splitting pass.
Spurs looked shell shocked as the noise levels inside the Amex increased. The roof was nearly blown off the place when Welbeck made it Brighton 3-2 Spurs on 66 minutes, completing the remarkable turnaround. Rutter turned a slide tackle into a cross headed home by Welbeck.
Verbruggen redeemed himself for that earlier error when saving from Destiny Udogie late on but other than that, Spurs never looked capable of levelling themselves.
Brighton had blown them away. The ultimate game of two halves.
