Brentford 0-0 Brighton: Roberto De Zerbi’s side suffer setback in race for Europe after blunt draw at Thomas Frank’s Bees

There was a moment midway through the second half when Brighton gave the ball away cheaply and Roberto De Zerbi sank to the floor of his dugout in frustration.

In a week in which his team announced record profits and in which he was linked with the Bayern Munich job and provisionally ruled himself out of the race for the vacant Liverpool job, this was the kind of evening that summed up the inconsistency of Brighton’s injury-plagued season.

With owner Tony Bloom in the away half, as is customary whenever they play Brentford given his long-running dispute with Brentford owner Paul Benham, you would have seen a team playing with a distinctive style and certainly not lacking in effort, but yes of crucial quality in the final. third. They haven’t won consecutive Premier League games since September and chances are that if they can’t put together a run together between now and May, there will be no European trips next season. You only appreciate something when it is no longer there. Perhaps the same can be said of De Zerbi, who has made it clear that Brighton’s ambitions must match his own.

As for Brentford, this was another crucial point that put them six ahead of Luton in 18th place with seven games left and comfortably in control of their own destiny.

In his program notes, Thomas Frank insisted that he would have lost faith in the football gods if his team had not equalized in the 99th minute against Manchester United on Saturday.

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“We destroyed them in so many ways with 31 shots and over 80 touches in their box,” said Frank, who initially named an unchanged team in that 1-1 draw but was forced to change when Ivan Toney took a knock during the warm. -above. Brentford tweeted the news with a photo of Bryan Mbeumo as his replacement, but ten minutes later the tweet was deleted and it was Toney who took the Bees out.

De Zerbi made four changes from the team that lost at Anfield: top scorer Joao Pedro returned from injury and Igor Julio, Facundo Buonanotte and Adam Lallana came on.

As expected, Brighton dominated possession from the start, but it was the home side who had the two best chances of the first half.

First, Keane Lewis-Potter took on Yoane Wissa in the box but shot wide when he really should have tested Bart Verbruggen and just after the half hour Wissa found Toney who beat Jan Paul van Hecke but only I had the goalkeeper. In the end, the forward apparently lost his balance and could only push the ball directly into Verbruggen’s hands.

At the other end, Pedro, Facundo Buonanotte and Simon Adingra kept Mark Flecken busy in the Brentford goal before Andy Madley became the second referee this season not to overturn his decision after being sent to the VAR monitor.

Michael Oliver, acting VAR, advised Madley to review his decision after Wissa dragged Lewis Dunk into the area, but Madley decided not to award a penalty because Dunk had attempted to drag Wissa seconds earlier. Instead, he spoke to Dunk to explain that he was awarding Brentford a free kick for the initial foul.

The decision was refreshing and a collector’s item, to say the least, but Brighton were incensed with Dunk, Lallana and Pascal Gross making their feelings clear when the half-time whistle blew minutes later.

Both coaches headed to the bench in a bid to make a breakthrough but to no avail as Toney curled a free-kick over the bar before Danny Welbeck wasted a golden opportunity when Kristoffer Ajer made a final block before celebrate as if he had scored.

On the bench, De Zerbi dropped to the ground and covered his face with his hands, but his frustration was visible. Welbeck wasted two more brilliant chances and De Zerbi could no longer cope.