Brighton & Hove Albion boss Roberto De Zerbi admitted his side deserved to lose after running out of steam against Nottingham Forest.
The Seagulls arrived at the City Ground on Wednesday night on the back of a gruelling and emotional FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United at Wembley. The teams could not be separated after 120 minutes of action but United prevailed in a dramatic penalty shoot-out.
Brighton took the lead against Forest through Facundo Buonanotte’s goal on his first Premier League start after Brennan Johnson had missed an early penalty for the home side. But an own goal by Pascal Gross on the stroke of half-time followed by second-half efforts from Danilo and Morgan Gibbs-White gave the Reds a vital 3-1 win, which lifted them out of the relegation zone.
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For the visitors, it was a blow to their hopes of qualifying for European football next season. They remain eighth in the Premier League table, four points behind sixth-placed Liverpool, though they do have games in hand on the teams above them.
De Zerbi said his threadbare squad ran out of energy after a bright opening. “We deserved to lose the game, we played well for the first 35 minutes in the first half and then we lost energy,” said the Italian.
“We didn’t change too many players from Wembley. We knew it was a very tough game. We could have scored more goals in that 35 minutes and then we lost the spirit and energy.
“It’s a difficult period for us because we are not used to playing three games in a week but we have to use it because we will play eight games and we have to fight to reach our target.
“For sure I am honest and I don’t want to speak in this way when we lose the game. I am proud for my players today when we lost the game.”
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