Carabao Cup, De Zerbi’s Brighton lose on penalties against Charlton

Brighton’s elimination from the Carabao Cup makes noise: the first English disappointment for Roberto De Zerbi arrives in London at the home of Charlton, the League One team who beat the seagulls 4-3 on penalties to earn the quarterfinals. It reaches United, Forest, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Southampton and Leicester, waiting for City-Liverpool to complete the round of 16 today with the most awaited match of the entire programme.

Brighton

—

The exit of De Zerbi’s team is sensational. Because Charlton are navigating bad waters in the English third series, they are in a difficult moment and seem to be the sacrificial victim from the start, with 9 defenders protecting the goal. Lallana hit the crossbar in the 16th minute, but the tactic worked, because Brighton hit a wall every time they attacked, still standing when uncertain referee Bramall whistled three times. The penalties for Brighton start with Gross’ post and Trossard’s crossbar: March with the 5th penalty can still send De Zerbi’s team forward, but kicks in the corner. It goes to the bitter end: in the second series, Caicedo makes a mistake while Lavelle hits the target, transforming Charlton into the only non-Premier team in the round of 16 of the Carabao Cup.

The words of the technician

—

“I’m sorry for our fans, we wanted to win and play in the quarter-finals of this competition – De Zerbi said after the match, visibly disappointed -. We played a good game, we did enough to win. But we made a lot of mistakes, and we’re going to lose on penalties. We have a strong group, we know the level we want to play at: we have to be ready for the next match (Monday against Southampton when the Premier League restarts, ed)”. De Zerbi also removes the alibis of players returning from the World Cup: the phosphorus of Mac Allister, world champion with Argentina, would have served to overcome the Charlton wall. “We are proud to have had players in Qatar – says De Zerbi -. We made some mistakes, we even missed the match point with March on penalties. When you are wrong as much as we are, we are about to lose”

The others

—

United made no mistake, led by World Cup veteran Marcus Rashford liquidating 2-0 Burnley, leaders in the Championship and well fielded by Vincent Kompany. United. All easy for Forest, who won 3-1 at Blackburn in a match that started 15′ late due to traffic. Now all that is missing is the big match between City and Liverpool to close the picture: the quarterfinals table will be compiled after the Etihad match.