BOILING POINT
De Zerbi loses his cool as Brighton dent Toon’s Euro hopes
THE away dug-out at St James’ Park bore the brunt of Roberto De Zerbi’s frustration but Eddie Howe had more reason to rue an outcome that did little for Newcastle’s hopes of clinching a return to Europe.
The Italian smashed his fist into the perspex covering as his anger boiled over at Brighton’s sluggish start, but in mitigation they recovered sufficiently to head south with a deserved point, in the process leaving an equally visible dent in the hosts’ bid for a top-six finish.
Newcastle remain unbeaten at home since January, but at a stage of the season where it is all about wins, a share of the spoils represents scant reward.
An eighth of the season from Sean Longstaff cancelled out a rare appearance on the scoresheet by Brighton defender Joel Veltman as both goals arrived before halftime. It ensured an outcome that leaves Howe’s side in all likelihood needing to win their remaining two games to clinch a Europa League place next season.
Neither side did enough to merit victory. A point keeps Brighton in the hunt for a top10 finish and it will not be lost on Newcastle that De Zerbi’s men can do them a big favour on Wednesday with victory over seventhplace Chelsea, on the same night Howe’s side visit Manchester United.
After being joined by chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan for a lap of appreciation after the final home game of the campaign, Howe said: ‘It was a frustrating afternoon. I was disappointed with the goal we conceded because from that point the game became a lot harder but we stuck to our task well and we were the ones pressing for the win at the end.
‘Now we’ve got two huge games ahead of us and it’s in our hands. The United game is set up perfectly. It’s a one-off match and we’ll give everything to get a positive result. As we’ve said all along it’s going to go to the wire and we want to be in Europe consistently year in, year out.’
In a contest that will not live long in the memory, Brighton took an 18th-minute lead when Veltman reacted first to Danny Welbeck’s knockdown from a Pascal Gross corner to poke home his first goal for 14 months from close range.
Julio Enciso should have doubled the lead before the break but the midfielder was unable to keep his diving header on target.
It proved to be a costly miss as deep into first-half stoppage-time Longstaff rounded off a move he had launched on halfway to ensure Newcastle have scored in every home league game this season.
The midfielder had earlier sent a header straight at Bart Verbruggen from Anthony Gordon’s corner, but made no mistake this time, finding the net with a crisp firsttime finish from Elliot Anderson’s low cut-back after Gordon’s trickery had engineered space.
The second half was largely a non-event. Substitute Harvey Barnes skied a presentable late chance from inside the area and
Gordon had the ball in the net at the death from Miguel Almiron’s square pass, but the effort was rightly ruled out for offside.
‘Overall I’m pleased,’ De Zerbi said. ‘We had to suffer a lot in the last 25 minutes because of the strength of the Newcastle bench I’m proud of that display against a very good team.
‘We’re not in the best moment but the aim now is to finish in the top 10 which, considering the injuries we’ve had, will be a good result.
‘We need to show personality in the last two games to end the season well.’