Tears of joy as Ali finally delivers Brighton goal

IT ONLY took a few seconds after Alireza Jahanbakhsh had drilled a shot into the bottom corner of the Bournemouth net for him to realise what he had done.

He turned to sprint away in celebration but soon stopped as his emotions got the better of him as his team-mates crowded around. The tears flowed as he was hugged.

It was a goal that had been more than a year in the making after he had joined Brighton for a clubrecord £17million from AZ Alkmaar in the summer of 2018. It was his first goal in 27 appearances for club. ‘I have been waiting for this time for a long time,’ Jahanbakhsh said. ‘Before the match I had a great feeling and

I’m glad to help us win the game.’

The doubts set in after 24 starts without anything to show for it. He has struggled with fitness, too, missing two months of action last season with a hamstring injury. There have been no guarantees for him this season as Brighton manager Graham Potter freely admitted. ‘Sometimes you get lucky with team selections,’ Potter said. ‘Ali sums up the group. He’s been frustrated but his approach to the team has been perfect and he deserves his goal.

‘He has been fighting to make an impact. He has worked away and improved and deserved his chance. I’m delighted he has been able to contribute to win.’

His goal came after superb build-up play from Aaron Mooy, who was the best player on the pitch, and Neal Maupay. Mooy sent Maupay forward and the striker cut the ball back for Jahanbakhsh to finish off.

Australian Mooy was unstoppable throughout and Bournemouth did not have a way of preventing him from pressing Steve Cook and Chris Mepham or from supplying crafty through balls to those ahead of him. He is equally as good

when delivering free-kicks and, it was from one, that Brighton thought they had profited. The 29-year-old’s delivery was not cleared and it took gymnast-like flexibility from Burn to manoeuvre his 6ft 7in frame into a position where he could send a shot from just outside the six-yard box crashing into Aaron Ramsdale’s net.

It was a thumping effort but quickly lost all impact when a VAR check showed Burn’s left elbow – which he could not have used to score anyway – was offside by the smallest of margins. But the decision only galvanised them and, with 11 minutes left, Mooy brought down Leandro Trossard’s chipped pass, cut inside and placed a shot into the far corner.