Brighton made it two wins out of two in the new Premier League season as they defeated Manchester United 2-1 on Saturday.
The home side took the lead when former United man Danny Welbeck stabbed a close-range finish home in the first half.
Erik ten Hag’s side scored an equaliser via a deflected Amad Diallo strike and then thought they took the lead with an Alejandro Garnacho finish that remarkably bounced off Joshua Zirkzee on the line when he was in an offside position.
It seemed like the points would be shared, but a lack of concentration at the back from United allowed Joao Pedro all the time to the world to nod a header into the corner from the back post.
Player of the Match
There were three players in the game who earned a 7.5 FC Rating – Jan Paul van Hecke, Diogo Dalot and Kobbie Mainoo.
Van Hecke put in a towering performance at the back and was actually unlucky that Amad’s strike deflected off him into the back of the Brighton net. He was particularly dominant against Marcus Rashford and continually read the runs of the United winger and shrugged him off the ball. He made 11 ball recoveries, won six duels and had more touches of the ball than any other player on the pitch with 100.
Dalot’s moment of the match came when he cleared a goal-bound James Milner strike off the line. However, he was on the complete opposite side of the pitch from his position in the dying minutes which allowed Pedro the space to score.
Mainoo was typically full of spirit in midfield as he won eight duels, 100% of his tackles and only misplaced two passes.
Worst Player
It was yet another bad day at the office for Rashford and they are all too frequent in a Man Utd short, unfortunately for him.
He was offside on two occasions to break down United attacks and didn’t even attempt a single shot on target, while he won less than half of his duels.
Zero interceptions, zero tackles won and he only completed 13 passes.
Click HERE FOR FULL PLAYER RATINGS.
Author : editors@footballcritic.com (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-08-24 13:44:33
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Author : soccernews
Publish date : 2024-08-24 13:47:26
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.