Roberto De Zerbi believes Leeds United’s fans played a key role as the Whites came from behind twice to claim a point against his Brighton side. The Seagulls’ head coach spoke in the week about dealing with the fierce atmosphere at Elland Road and he was happy with how his side handled it.
However, he also explained his belief that the United crowd helped their side to fight back and hold the Seagulls to a 2-2 draw in the second half. Brighton took the lead in the first half of the contest as Alexis Mac Allister found the bottom corner of Illan Meslier’s net, but they were pegged back before the interval as Patrick Bamford’s edge-of-the-box effort was deflected beyond Jason Steele.
Jack Harrison’s own goal in the second half gave the south coast outfit the lead once more, but the winger stepped up when his side needed him most to pull Leeds level with a stunning finish from a tight angle. The goal was slightly controversial given a second ball made its way onto the field in the build-up to Harrison’s strike.
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De Zerbi, though, was more concerned with how his side threw away two points in West Yorkshire.
“I think we lost two points today,” De Zerbi said. “We played very well against a good team, a live team.
“I’m really sorry for the result. The quality of play, the mentality, the performance of my players I’m pleased.
“There were two balls on the pitch but we had to be more concentrated on that part of the game. In that part of the game we had many chances to close the game and we have to learn and improve in this part. When we have to close the game we must be more tough.”
Asked how he felt his side handled the hot atmosphere, he added: “Like lions. In terms of mentality, we were fantastic.
“I think in that part of the second half, the Leeds fans understood the game was very, very difficult for them. For this we had the possibility to close the game and maybe in that part we lost the two points.”
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