Dominic Solanke lofted the ball into an empty net after Ryan Christie had pickpocketed goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, but Cherries were unable to hold on, Milos Kerkez’s own goal levelling scores before the break. Karou Mitoma came off the bench to score twice and turn the game around in the hosts’ favour. Verbruggen saw a lot of the ball in the first period, being tasked with building moves for Brighton. The goalie was allowed to dwell on the ball, but Christie picked the right moment to tackle the Dutchman and set up Solanke for the opener. Cherries anticipated this, according to Iraola,
Andoni Iraola said: “We knew when you come here they are going to try and build up. We have a lot of decisions to make. We decided to go man-to-man, taking risks and the only free man was the keeper. We had to decide very well the moment where you have to run to the keeper, otherwise they find the spare man very easily and they are out. I think we did really well, not only on this play, but overall during the game. We lost because of other reasons.”
It took Brighton just 15 seconds to take the lead in the second half, leaving a shellshocked Cherries struggling to find a response.
Andoni Iraola said: “I think we had the chances, especially with Antoine, the two chances he had for us. He was very good from the bench. Also the one that they cleared from the line and we had some chances there. But it was much more difficult, because when they don’t have the need to attack you, they can play with the ball, they can attract you and it is much more difficult to play against Brighton once they are winning. For me the key is having the first half where we were winning, you have to make more damage.”
