Yahoo News Modest Roberto De Zerbi singles out the reason for Aston Villa's defeat at Brighton
Brighton boss Roberto De Zerbi admitted his team capitalised on Aston Villa’s fatigue as they won for the first time in nearly two months.
A lacklustre Premier League game was settled by Joao Pedro’s winner just two minutes from time and condemned Villa to back to back defeats following Thursday night’s Europa Conference League upset at the hands of Olympiacos.
Villa came into today’s clash at the Amex Stadium on the back of just two days preparation and without several key players who would have helped their cause. They were put under further pressure in the first half when Morgan Rogers limped off forcing Unai Emery into a rejig.
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In the end the visitors only mustered one shot on target and missed what, with Tottenham’s defeat at Liverpool, would have been a chance to secure Champions League football for next season.
As for De Zerbi, he knew his side could have won by more but for an excellent display from Villa’s back-up goalkeeper Robin Olsen.
“I am proud because we played a great game against one of the best teams in the Premier League,” said the Italian, who referenced his side’s 6-1 thrashing at Villa Park in September during his pre-match team talk.
“They are fourth on the table and playing against the teams of Emery is still very tough. We played a good game, we deserved to win, we could score more goals. But to be honest Villa were not the true Villa today, maybe they were tired.
“Olsen was the best player for Villa and you can imagine how many chances we had to score. When you are making this bad result (at Bournemouth), you have to show the attitude. I think we showed that today. We didn’t play an amazing game in terms of quality of football but we showed pride and a big reaction.”
Villa travel to Greece next to try to overturn their 4-2 deficit and reach the final of the UECL.
