Leicester 2-2 Brighton: Penalty heartache makes an opportunity missed
Brighton reaching the quarter finals of the League Cup is an event so rare that it is hard to describe elimination on penalties at the hands of Leicester City following a 2-2 draw at the King Power Stadium as anything but a disappointment.
Only once in the best part of 60 years have the Albion made the last eight of the competition. That came in the 1978-79 season, since when there have been eight British Prime Ministers, seven US Presidents, three Supreme Leaders of North Korea, four James Bonds and six Ben Mitchells in EastEnders.
Rarely in the 41 years since Brighton faced Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest in their previous quarter final appearance have the Seagulls had a better chance of making that stage of the League Cup again.
This was a massive missed opportunity. A full strength starting XI, stupid mistakes defensively, better decision making from Aaron Connolly and ultimately, doing far better than they managed in the lottery of spot kicks could all have contributed towards moving the Albion into the last eight.
And who knows what might have happened from there? Both Manchester City and Manchester United are out, potentially opening the competition up for an unfashionable winner of the trophy at Wembley in the spring.
With a friendly draw, Brighton could have been victories over Sunderland, Brentford and West Ham United away from a first piece of major silverware in their history and that all important European tour we all crave.
Let us start with that team then. Before kick off, there were not many complaints with Graham Potter’s selection. Dan Burn, Joel Veltman and Der Kapitan Pascal Gross all retained their places from the 4-1 defeat to Manchester City at the weekend.
Of those coming in, Adam Webster and Tariq Lamptey will both be regulars once up to full match fitness. Shane Duffy has started every game this season bar City. Alexis Mac Allister scored at the weekend after being introduced as a substitute as Brighton laid siege to the champions’ goal.
It was as strong a Brighton line up as we have seen Potter name in the competition. But what if Potter had gone full strength? Robert Sanchez over Jason Steele. Neal Maupay leading the line rather than Aaron Connolly. Leandro Trossard over Jurgen Locadia. Yves Bissouma starting.
Brighton would probably have a spot in the quarter finals. Sure, it might have an adverse impact on their chances of victory at Anfield on Saturday, but three points from the red side of Merseyside for the second season running seems unlikely anyway.
Should Brighton have sacrificed their chances of a point away at Liverpool by concentrating on this League Cup tie and a shot at silverware? Maybe – but hindsight is a beautiful thing.
And to be fair, the players who Potter sent out did well. The Albion were the better side against a decent Leicester line up, who included Çağlar Söyüncü, Jannik Vestergaard, Hamza Choudhury, Harvey Barnes and Patson Daka.
What cost the Seagulls most were those individual mistakes. Both Foxes goals in Leicester 2-2 Brighton were preventable, continuing a slightly worrying pattern as sloppy play also gifted City three quarters of their total at the Amex four days earlier.
Only six minutes had elapsed when Steele played a woeful pass to Webster, Harvey Barnes intercepted and made the Albion goalkeeper pay the price with a clinical finish.
Steele’s error had shades of his performance in last season’s FA Cup third round game against Newport, when he resembled a Sunday League goalkeeper in the midst of a 36 hour MDMA bender.
It seemed apt meanwhile that it was Barnes profiteering, seeing as he had been the man flagged offside twice when two Leicester goals were disallowed, helping the Albion defeat the Foxes 2-1 at the Amex last month in controversial circumstances.
The second individual mistake came from Jeremy Sarimento in the five minute of first half injury time. Sarmiento attempted to play a pass back to Steele but he failed to notice Ademola Lookman lurking. Lookman simply latched onto the pass and beat Steele.
Without those two glaring errors, Brighton win 2-0. As fans, we are all a step closer to having to re-mortgage our homes to afford trays of Jaegerbombs in the Green Man at Wembley in February before witnessing Lewis Dunk lifting the cup.
It was a shame for Sarimento as he had given a hugely encouraging 45 minutes other than that on his full debut. The Ecuadorian teenager was positive, wanted to run at Leicester and a lot of problems.
We are not ones for getting carried away, but he did enough to suggest that he could become the first Ballon d’Or winner named Jeremy, unless Jeremy Corbyn manages to beat him to it. Or Corbyn finishes second and all his fanatics decide to portray it as a wonderful victory, like with the 2017 General Election.
What made the timing of the second Leicester game doubly disappointing was that Brighton had just found a way back into the tie. Less than 120 seconds earlier, Adam Webster had cancelled out Barnes’ opener when turning home a Duffy downwards header from a Gross corner.
Equalising in the 48th minute of the first half should see you into the interval on level terms. To go in behind after conceding in the 50th minute in the first half is, well, #TypicalBrighton.
We mentioned Connolly and whilst it would be unfair to lay too much of the blame at his door, his decision making at times was on a par with whoever thought it was a good idea to sail the Ever Given through the Suez Canal.
One chance in particular left a lot of Brighton fans scratching their heads. Nine minutes into the second half and Connolly sprung the offside trap to collect a perfect through ball from Mac Allister.
The Irish striker now had a clear run at Danny Ward’s goal. So what did he opt to do? Shoot from 30-odd yards with an effort that ended up trickling wide of the post. Ward could not believe his luck. Anyone who has watched Connolly over the past two seasons could.
As the second half wore on, Potter increasingly strengthened the team he had on the pitch. On came Marc Cucurella, Dunk, Bissouma and Maupay.
Cucurella needed less than a couple of minutes to involve himself in the Albion’s second equaliser of the evening, which made it Leicester 2-2 Brighton.
Mac Allister released the Spaniard down the left and his perfect cross to the back post was headed home by Enock Mwepu. The Computer had replaced the injured Burn at half time and this was his first goal in Brighton colours as he continues to adapt to English football.
The Albion looked the more likely to find a winner after that, especially whenever Bissouma was on the ball. Even when Bissouma was in his own half, Brighton supporters were shouting “Shoooooooooot” on account of the fact that the midfielder has scored a couple of goals from distance.
In completely unrelated news, I am looking forward to shouting “Shoooooooooot” at whoever is playing Captain Hook in pantomime at the Dome this Christmas.
No other goals were forthcoming and so to penalties the game went. Steele decided to dive the same way for every one of Leicester’s spot kicks, showing a tendency for the right that would have made even Benito Mussolini blush.
The Foxes scored all four of their spot kicks as a result with James Maddison, Barnes, Daka and Ricardo Pereira successful from 12 yards.
Der Kapitan Gross and Alexis Mac Allister converted for Brighton but Maupay failed to hit the target with the Albion’s second penalty and the fourth taken by Mwepu was kept out by Danny Ward to send the hosts through to the last eight.
A Leicester win was underserved, but then again no Brighton fan could seriously complain given the questionable penalty awarded by VAR and the offside decisions that went the Albion’s way when the sides met last month.
They say that luck evens itself out in football and that was certainly the case here. The Albion could at least take heart from the signs of progress these two early meetings with Leicester have shown, going to toe-to-toe with a Foxes side who over the past four seasons Brighton have been unable to lay a glove on.
Leicester march on and will now fancy their chances of adding this season’s League Cup to last season’s FA Cup which currently occupies the King Power Stadium trophy cabinet.
For Brighton, we are simply left to wonder what might have been. It is now down to a top six finish or succeeding Leicester as FA Cup winners to provide that route into Europe.
