Marseille 2-2 Brighton: Albion show big balls in South of France

Stade Velodrome is one of hell of a football stadium. With its sweeping banks of mass concrete terraces, it looks intimidating before you even get to the noise. Brighton visibly wilted in the face of the hostile atmosphere in the opening 20 minutes and yet by full time they had come from 2-0 behind to draw 2-2 with Olympique de Marseille.

How? As Roberto De Zerbi would say, big balls. The situation looked hopeless for the Albion. Their recovery was the most remarkable surprise sprung on the French since Lord Nelson led the British Naval Fleet to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar against similarly insurmountable odds.

Does this make De Zerbi the next Nelson? Hopefully not. Nelson was killed by a French sniper, after all. The Albion cannot afford to lose one of the most innovative and exciting head coaches in world football right now to such a fate, let alone to Real Madrid.

At this juncture, we could quote Lord Nelson. What exactly were his last words? Historians debate whether he said “Thank God I have done my duty.”

Or did he mutter “Kiss me, Hardy,” so that his captain Thomas Hardy would kiss Nelson on his hands and forehead? Nobody will ever know the truth.

We have certainty over what De Zerbi said following Marseille 2-2 Brighton, however. “I want to be honest. We’re not playing well. It’s a very tough period for us.”

“It’s difficult for us to show our quality. But it’s important playing with heart, with passion. The reaction was incredible.”

That it was. To throw in a third quote from a man not as talented nor famous as either Nelson or De Zerbi, Sven-Goran Eriksson used the say when England manager: “First half good, second half not so good.”

Marseille 2-2 Brighton was the polar opposite, from an Albion point of view at least. In the first half, every Brighton pass either went to the a white shirt or out of play.

Joel Veltman and Lewis Dunk never normally make mistakes, and yet here they were committing bad errors to gift Marseille their two goals. If players with the composure of Veltman and Dunk were struggling to cope with the Velodrome, what hope the rest?

The opponents, the venue and the occasion all seemed to feed into De Zerbi’s thinking as his starting XI selection was based on experience as much as anything else.

Mahmoud Dahoud and Pascal Gross in midfield. Danny Welbeck leading the line. Ansu Fati with 112 games for Barcelona to his name despite his tender youth.

The problem was that even these wide old heads were overawed. For the first Marseille goal, Veltman and Dahoud did not cover themselves in glory and that allowed Jonathan Clauss to pull a pass back to Chancel Mbemba who applied the finish.

Just 89 seconds later and Marseille doubled the lead. Lewis Dunk produced the sort of air kick rarely seen outside of a Sussex Sunday League game at East Brighton Park featuring 22 hungover blokes, leaving the hosts to break through Amie Harit.

He found Jordan Veretout and despite the shot appearing to go straight at Jason Steele, the ball found its way back into the back of net. Suddenly, a repeat – or worse – of Aston Villa 6-1 Brighton from the weekend seemed on the cards.

A significant number of Albion fans were still yet to make into Stade Velodrome by this point on account of delayed planes and a pretty shambolic bus situation from Place de la Joliette.

French police in not having a fucking clue how to deal with a crowd at a sporting event shock. Welcome to European football, Brighton fans.

Tony Bloom even found himself giving a landing announcement as his flight from Heathrow to Marseille arrived two hours late, telling supporters the club had arranged for buses to pick them all up from the airport. Is there any other owner of a football club who does that?

Nothing to see here, just Brighton chairman Tony Bloom doing a landing announcement on the delayed Heathrow to Marseille flight letting everyone know the Albion were picking them all up from the airport😂

Best owner in world football #BHAFC https://t.co/xObzm4OvCB

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) October 5, 2023

In any case, you could argue that missing the first 30 minutes was a blessing in disguise. It was only after this period that Brighton settled down and grew into the contest.

Referee Mykola Balakin was sent to the screen to investigate a potential handball from Veretout, only to decide there was no crime to answer.

Fati then saw a deft header brilliantly tipped away by Marseille goalkeeper Pau Lopez. Welbeck was played in by Veltman, only to see his one-on-one saved by Lopez. With Fati completely open to Welbeck’s left, Dat Guy undoubtedly took a terrible decision to go for goal himself.

Brighton had finished the first half in a manner which was very encouraging. They were growing into the game and clearly had goals in them. The only problem being that whilst the Albion looked like they could score two or three, so too did Marseille.

The next goal would be crucial. If it went Marseille, it was finie. But if Brighton scored, a passionate yet notorious fickle home fanbase would become anxious and those nerves could transmit to the pitch.

Nine minutes into the second half and the Albion struck, through Gross of course. Der Kaiser has scored so many important goals in his Brighton career that logically, there could never be anyone else other than him to drag Brighton back into the game.

Tariq Lamptey burst down the left and fed Mitoma. The Japanese Bullet Train had been pretty anonymous up to that point, but in true Mitoma style he chose a vital moment to arrive at the party with sushi and Asahi in hand.

Mitoma pulled a pass back, Welbeck made the decoy run and Gross applied a cool, calm and collected finish. Game on – and Marseille knew it.

Suddenly, the hosts started going to ground at every opportunity. It was like they were auditioning for Lancing Amateur Dramatic Society’s upcoming performance of Les Miserables.

In amongst all the theartics, Van Hecke saw a header diverted behind by Mitoma of all people. Dunk then atoned for turning into Casper the Friendly Ghost and allowing Marseille to score their second with an absolutely superb last ditch sliding block on Vitiniha.

With just four minutes remaining, Lamptey found himself running at Clauss. Contact was minimal, but Lamptey channelled his inner Hugh Jackman playing Jean Valjean and looked down.

A penalty was awarded. Marseille’s players did their best to get in the heads of substitute Joao Pedro, the heir to Alexis Mac Allister as Brighton penalty taker. The home fans created a cacophony of noise.

None of that though could put Pedro off. He duly stuck the ball into the bottom corner to make it Marseille 2-2 Brighton and complete a famous comeback in the cauldron of the Velodrome.

Not many teams manage that in European competition. Brighton under De Zerbi though? Big balls.