Marseille 2-2 Brighton: Lamptey leads les ratings

Chateauneuf-du-Pape! Brighton produced a fine comeback from 2-0 down to salvage a 2-2 away against Marseille in the Europa League, with a poor first half followed by an excellent second at Stade Velodrome leading to an interesting set of player ratings.

On the one hand, you had Tariq Lamptey and Pascal Gross delivering performances in the sevens. Joao Pedro also scored highly having come off the bench to score an 88th minute equaliser from the penalty spot.

At the other end of the scale, Jason Steele was shaky and Danny Welbeck joined him in the four club following a terrible piece of decision making when he went for goal rather than squaring to the unmarked Ansu Fati.

Here are your Marseille 2-2 Brighton player ratings from a famous night in the South of France.

Jason Steele – 4.67
A mixed bag for the Albion goalkeeper. Made a couple of good saves but letting a shot from Jordan Veretout go straight through him was unforgivable. Marseille refused to be drawn into the press and that meant no chance to show off his playmaking skills.

Joel Veltman – 5.92
A poor first half improved towards the end when he played the through ball which put Danny Welbeck in for Dat Guy’s squandered one-on-one. Better after the break, when he made some important interventions.

Jan Paul van Hecke – 5.92
90 minutes which underlined why he should be Lewis Dunk’s regular starting partner going forward. Strong defensively and on another day he might have been involved in two goals at the other end. Firstly when forced VAR to take a look at a penalty claim; then in the second half his powerful on-target header unfortunately hit Kaoru Mitoma in the face.

Lewis Dunk – 5.42
Worrying scenes when Dunk fell to the ground following Pedro’s equalising penalty. Roberto De Zerbi said afterwards it was due to Dunk losing energy and feeling sick. His horrendous air kick gifted Marseille their second but he went someway to atoning for the error with a sensational block on Vitinha which prevented a certain goal.

TARIQ LAMPTEY – 7.83
Wrap Lamptey up in cotton wool. With Pervis Estupinan out injured, the left back shirt is now his. Marseille had no idea what to do with his probing runs forward. He was heavily involved in the first Albion goal scored by Gross and then won the equalising penalty.

Pascal Gross – 7.33
His return from injury was a significant boost for Brighton and his goal was a typically composed finish. That there are still Seagulls supporters who debate whether Gross should be in the starting XI is mind blowing when you look at how poor the Albion have been without him in recent matches compared to what happens when he plays.

Mahmoud Dahoud – 5.00
Presumably picked over Billy Gilmour for his experience of European football. The game though rather passed him by, save for a visionary lofted pass into the box which gave Fati a good headed opportunity.

Solly March – 5.00
You could have forgotten he was playing until the stroke of half time when firing a shot just wide. Some probing runs helped Brighton get on top after the break. Got changed and showered remarkably quickly afterwards to join the French riot police in holding Albion fans inside the stadium for over two hours after the full time whistle. Who knew he had a second job with La Gendarmerie?

Solly solly march. 😂 pic.twitter.com/tvq13yADNU

— Clive Steed (@1066_seagull) October 5, 2023

Ansu Fati – 5.08
Seems like a bit of a harsh mark given he almost had two goals. It needed a fantastic save from Pau Lopez to claw Fati’s header from Dahoud’s pass away and he would have had a tap in had Welbeck not been greedy with that first half one-on-one.

Kaoru Mitoma – 5.92
Struggled to make much headway in the 6-1 defeat at Aston Vila on Saturday and it was a similar story here in the first half. Much improved after the break when he started weaving his way around Marseille defenders, culminating in a nice assist for Gross. An announcement of him signing a new five-year contract is said to be imminent.

Danny Welbeck – 4.25
His fist attempt of the game was fired miles over the bar. Perhaps he got confused with all the signage for the Rugby World Cup around the Velodrome and thought he was playing the egg-shaped sport? No excuse though for opting to shoot when he had Fati totally unmarked and with an open goal to aim at.

Billy Gilmour – 5.00
Some decent moments but not his best game in possession after coming on.

Joao Pedro – 7.42
Two Europa League appearances now have yielded top spot in the Brighton 2-3 AEK Athens player ratings and second in the Marseille 2-2 Brighton player ratings. Had ice in his veins to convert the late penalty despite home players trying to put him off and a cacophony of deafening noise raining down from the terraces.

Simon Adingra – 5.17
Some lively moments in his cameo. He nearly scored with a difficult header which flashed across the face of goal.

Evan Ferguson – 4.50
Mature beyond his years as he refused to be intimidated by the Velodrome. Picked up a booking and his actions before the spot kick deserve praise as he kept Marseille players away from Pedro as they attempted to get into the head of the penalty taker.

The WAB Player Ratings are formulated using marks out of 10 given by Brighton fans via Twitter. To have your scores included, follow We Are Brighton on Twitter and look out for the player rating thread after each game.