Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton: FA Cup holds no fear for Albion

Roberto De Zerbi has not been shy about he wants from the FA Cup this season. To right the wrongs of semi final defeat against Manchester United last April. From what we saw in Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton, the Albion look well placed to do that… and maybe even more.

A Wembley return is just two wins away. That is eminently achievable though a combination of a kind draw and Brighton taking the competition more seriously than any other top flight team in it.

And even if the draw was unkind, there are not many teams the Albion will fear facing. Manchester City. Liverpool, although the Seagulls eliminated the holders last season in the fourth round at the Amex.

Manchester United could be tricky. But with the added fire of revenge and four consecutive Premier League victories over the Red Devils, a meeting with Erik ten Haag’s side is certainly winnable. The Saudi Sportswashers would be difficult.

Arsenal are out. Spurs are out. West Ham are out. One of Chelsea or Aston Villa will be out after they drew 0-0 at Stamford Bridge and now face a Villa Park replay to decide who progresses to the fifth round.

None of those aforementioned teams still in the competition will want to face Brighton, either. The Albion have now scored nine goals to easily glide through two potential banana skin ties.

Championship side Stoke City were in the middle of a new manager bounce and the Bet365 Stadium is notoriously hard to go to.

Final score? Stoke 2-4 Brighton, with the Potters only getting on the scoresheet through a comical own goal and a penalty.

Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton looked even trickier. The Blades are a fellow Premier League team, desperately seeking some form to give their top flight survival hopes are boost.

The Albion had won only twice at Bramall Lane since 1978. The Blades through were blunted by a dominant Brighton who, for the second FA Cup game running, could even afford to give away two goals and still win comfortably.

Joao Pedro will understandably be the headline maker. His first hat-trick in English football moved him onto 18 for the season, now just four off equalling Michael Robinson‘s club record of 22 goals in a top flight campaign.

But there was much more to Brighton than the brilliant Brazilian. Evan Ferguson earned one of the Albion’s two spot kicks and did plenty of other tireless work in holding the ball up and bringing others in. It was the teenager Irish sensations best game for some time.

Facundo Buonanotte scored a Goal of the Season contender in another dazzling display. All that criticism Buonanotte came in for earlier in the season seemed wide of the mark; three months down the line and it is proving to be pretty stupid.

An 18-year-old moving to a strange foreign country was always going to need time to adapt. Now, he is showing the sort of form which led to no lesser judge than his Rosario Central manager Carlos Tevez to compare Buonanotte to Lionel Messi.

There were shades of the Messi in the way Buonanotte opened the scoring with 16 minutes played. A patient passing move worked the ball from front to back in true DeZerbiBall style.

At its end, Ferguson fed the ball into the path of Buonanotte some 30 yards out. A feint and shimmy later and Buonanotte had advanced 10 yards, cut in from the left to a more central position and blasted an unstoppable rocket into the top corner from outside the box.

12 minutes after that and Pedro doubled the advantage, taking his perfect penalty record to nine goals from nine spot kicks.

Most of Pedro’s penalties have seen the goalkeeper go the wrong way, including Ivo Grbic here. And he has won a fair few of them himself.

Few players in English football this season have been as difficult to deal with for defenders in the box as Pedro. Nobody is more clinical from 12 yards.

By the half hour mark, Brighton were enjoying 83 percent possession. It was turning into a procession towards victory.

24 hours after Jurgen Klopp announced he would be leaving Liverpool this summer and De Zerbi was installed as second-favourite for the job, we wanted the Albion to stop being quite so good so as to not attract too much attention from Anfield.

Bart Verbruggen and Adam Webster clearly felt the same and they cleverly conspired to ensure the Blades were level by half time.

Verbruggen was at fault for the first Sheffield United goal on 44 minutes. William Osula crossed low into the box and the Dutch goalkeeper made a mess of gathering, succeeding in only palming the ball straight to Gustavo Hamer who fired home.

All manner of unnecessary delays through the first half led to eight minutes of stoppage time, including VAR looking at Hamer’s goal. It was in the last of those eight additional minutes that Webster had a total brain malfunction.

Jayden Bogle crossed and rather than try and cut the ball out, Webster decided to push Osula into the path of it. When Osula put a free header beyond the out-of-position Verbruggen, Webster then raised his arm into the air and began hopping around.

He looked like a schoolboy whose teacher has just asked “What is the capital of Australia?” and he is desperate to answer knowing it is Canberra rather than Sydney or Melbourne.

Webster’s offside appeal was not upheld after a lengthy VAR check. De Zerbi was unimpressed with the defending but hey, if Liverpool have their doubts about him because his teams concede a lot of goals, that might be no bad thing in the long run for Brighton.

Presumably read the riot act by their head coach at half time, the Albion soon set about re-establishing a lead. Seven minutes had elapsed when Buonanotte crossed and Bogle handled as he challenged Ferguson.

Brighton had their second penalty of the afternoon confirmed following a third extended VAR intervention. Pedro stepped up and made it 10 from Len to move the Albion 3-2 ahead.

Lewis Dunk and Danny Welbeck entered the game just past the hour mark as De Zerbi switched to a back four in response to the Blades enjoying a brief good period. The changes worked as two more goals made it Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton.

Welbeck had only been on the pitch five minutes when he picked out Pedro on the edge of the box. Pedro was well-attended to by several red and white shirts but his first touch was sublime in creating enough space for a shot which he duly tucked just inside the post.

The game was done with Welbeck then adding some icing to the cake in the seventh minute of second half stoppage time. Anyone booked on a 5.30pm train out of Sheffield would have missed it because of the ridiculous amount of stoppages.

It was a fine goal too, Dat Guy escaping down the right past one Blades defender and beating Grbic at the near post with a clinical finish.

A minute or two later and the full time whistle blew, leaving the away end at Bramall Lane to sing of Wembley (or at least those not legging it to the station did) after Sheffield United 2-5 Brighton.

Keep playing like this in the FA Cup, racking up the goals and making matches so enjoyable and that dream can easily become a reality.

A first piece of major silverware in Albion history? You would not put it past De Zerbi and this talented squad.

Que sera, sera…