£30 million record signing from Brighton Joao Pedro acknowledged that the Seagulls learned a hard lesson after losing 3-2 to Greek champions AEK Athens in their Europa League debut.
After falling behind twice already in the first half, Roberto De Zerbi’s team failed to pay attention, and visiting substitute Ezequiel Ponce scored the game-winning goal on the counterattack six minutes from the conclusion of regulation.
Both times, after VAR had acted in favour of Brighton, Pedro scored from the penalty spot to tie the score in the first and second periods.
The home team played better, but they lacked AEK’s decisiveness, as evidenced by the two superb set-piece goals they scored. Djibril Sidibe scored the game’s first goal with a beautiful header, and then Mijat Gacinovic followed with a wonderful finish as nervousness and self-indulgence brought down Brighton.
The fact that Brighton is playing in the Europa League for the first time and that we gave up a goal too soon make it difficult to tell, Pedro remarked in a statement to TNT Sport. To prepare for the upcoming game, we must examine what we can do better.
We are aware of their strength both in defence and offence. You won’t allow these ambitions if you mark more actively. Although it would have been great if we had won, I am pleased with my goal today. I did my best to support the squad, but we still need to get better before the next match. We need to take today’s loss against West Ham as an example because they play similarly.
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