Brighton 1 Marseille 0: Joao Pedro scores dramatic late winner to seal top spot in group and Europa League last 16 spot
JOAO PEDRO jumped into the Amex stands to celebrate with fans as he fired Brighton into the last 16.
The 22-year-old has played a major role in Brighton’s maiden European tour with six goals in the competition this season, making him the Europa League top scorer.
He has already scored as many Europa League goals in six games this term as last season’s joint-top goalscorers Marcus Rashford and Victor Boniface (six).
Roberto De Zerbi also celebrated with the boisterous home fans having lobbed a water bottle to the floor in frustration just minutes earlier.
It took until 88 minutes for Pedro to find a breakthrough as their hopes of topping Group B looked to be slipping away from them.
Marseille only needed a draw to move straight into the round of 16, having gone into last night’s game a point above Brighton.
The Seagulls now avoid a potentially tougher path in a play-off against a team to drop out of the Champions League, like AC Milan, Benfica, Feyenoord, Galatasaray and Shakhtar Donetsk.
This club hasn’t seen many bigger nights than this.
Only the 1983 FA Cup final where they lost to Manchester United or final day survival at Hereford in Division Three when they were heading to non-league in 1997 spring to mind.
The reverse fixture back in October is what lit up their Europa League hopes, as they fought back from 2-0 down to secure a draw.
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Brighton had lost 3-2 their opening group match to AEK Athens in September but they went on to beat Ajax twice as well as Athens after their France rendezvous.
You could tell De Zerbi meant business as he hurled off his snood scarf less than a minute into the game.
It had all been Brighton but out of nowhere the visitors fired a warning shot from Jonathan Clauss off the crossbar, thanks to a flukey Pascal Gross deflection.
The Amex erupted in boos after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pulled up and required treatment on the pitch before recovering.
The former Arsenal striker has scored a whopping 29 goals in 53 Europa League appearances but didn’t come close on Thursday night.
The Seagulls emerged from the restart with some flamboyance about them.
Again, Gennaro Gattuso’s side nearly nicked one out of nowhere as Amine Harit hit the post.
The rebound flicked off Steele’s leg and could have easily been poked in had Jan-Paul van Hecke not come to the rescue.
Brighton desperately pushed for a winner and substitute Adam Lallana found Pedro in the box but the Brighton forward couldn’t get it under control.
Evan Ferguson then stung the hands of Lopez with a rasping effort.
But Marseille were made to pay as Pedro smashed home the winner into the top corner after being teed up by Gross.