November Internationals: No Brighton winners in second round of matches
The second round of November internationals did not go too well for Brighton & Hove Albion’s representatives with nobody who took to the field for their country tasting victory over the weekend.
Shane Duffy and Jayson Molumby both started for the Republic of Ireland as their difficult beginning to life under new manager Stephen Kenny continued with a 1-0 defeat against Wales.
Molumby was involved in one of the few first half talking points when Wales’ Joe Morrell kicked out at the midfielder after an accidental coming together.
Somehow, Morrell remained on the pitch with only a yellow card being shown for this act of violence. To anger the Irish even more, Molumby was also booked for his part in the incident, ruling him out of Bulgaria’s visit to the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday night.
A suspension could not have come at a worse time for Molumby, given that he is yet to make a Premier League appeatance so far for Brighton.
International duty is currently his best chance of getting minutes under his belt and his performance against Wales drew plenty of praise as he looks to establish himself as a regular for the Republic. That quest will now take a minor hit as he is forced to sit out their next game.
Duffy meanwhile enjoyed a better evening than he has for some time following a testing start to his loan spell at Celtic. He was a threat from set pieces in the Wales box whilst defending reasonably well at the other end against a certain Gareth Bale.
Bale played a part in the only goal of the game which arrived midway through the first half. Duffy thought he had done enough to head a Daniel James cross away but he had not counted on Bale managing to retrieve the situation by latching onto the clearance and heading it across goal to one-time Brighton target David Brooks who smashed home.
Whilst Duffy and Molumby may have impressed on a personal level, this is turning into something of a nightmare period for the Republic of Ireland.
They have now scored just one goal in six games under Kenny. He is still yet to taste victory in the dugout with the Boys in Green’s last success coming over a year ago now, a friendly win over New Zealand under Mick McCarthy.
Jakub Moder was given another start by Poland after his goal scoring heroics against Ukraine in the first round of November internationals for their much tougher Nations League test away in Italy.
The Azzurri were totally dominant in Reggio Emilia, having 19 shots to Poland’s zero as they sauntered to a 2-0 success. Jorginho scored a first half penalty just as he had when Chelsea beat Brighton 3-1 on the opening day of the 2020-21 Premier League campaign with Domenico Berardi adding a second just past the hour mark.
Moder was replaced at the break by Jacek Góralski, who lasted only 32 minutes before being sent off for two bookable offences in an evening to forget for the Poles.
The Netherlands had an excellent 3-1 Nations League win over Bosnia & Herzegovina in Amsterdam but Joel Veltman played no part having been left on the bench. Georginio Wijnaldum scored twice with Memphis Depay also on target.
Finally, a special note of thanks to England who decided that they wanted to morph into Graham Potter’s Brighton for the evening. 16 shots, 55% possession, five corners, a 2-0 defeat to Belgium.
Watching the Three Lions was akin to what we have all experienced via the Albion in 2020-21, the only difference being that Gareth Southgate did not say afterwards that we would “learn” and “take the positives.”
Because of England’s performance in the second round of November internationals, the rest of the nation now knows how frustrating it is to be Brighton fan.
