DUNK DETERMINED TO GO THE EXTRA MILE

BRIGHTON defender Lewis Dunk is adamant going toe-to-toe with Manchester United for two hours at Wembley has reinforced their belief they can qualify for Europe.

Agonising defeat on penalties on Sunday meant missing out on FA Cup final, but the fact that both finalists will almost certainly qualify for the Champions League means that there is an extra Europa League place up for grabs.

Likewise, Manchester United’s Europa Conference League place for winning the Carabao Cup will go to the team finishing seventh.

Brighton, currently eighth but with games in hand on the teams above them, travel to Nottingham Forest tomorrow before taking on Wolves at the Amex Stadium on Saturday.

After that comes a nightmare run of fixtures against the top four in their next six matches before finishing the season at Villa Park.

But Dunk (right, consoling Solly March at Wembley) believes they are ready to compete with the big guns.

“We have to go again on Wednesday,” he said. “We have nine humongous games if we want to get into Europe. We will park this loss and will be ready to rumble again.

“We were hurting in the changing room afterwards but we must hold our heads high. We have something to look forward to. We cannot be thinking about this for too long. We have got nine games to focus on to get to where we want to be.

“This is a well-run club from top to bottom.

“It has been nice to get some praise with the cup run but I think we have shown we are able to compete all year.

“We can beat anybody on our day and the good thing now is that we are at a level where we don’t go out there and fear people.”