Brighton 1 Aston Villa 0 - Report

Joao Pedro headed home the rebound after Robin Olsen had saved his penalty three minutes from time.

Olsen, once more deputising for Emi Martinez, had earlier denied both Pedro and Pascal Gross one-on-one.

Villa barely carved out a chance in a tired-looking performance, though John McGinn did see a goal ruled out for a narrow offside.

Analysis

That came after Gross had also seen an effort chalked off by VAR for the home side.

There was no intervention from video assistant Michael Oliver when Simon Adringa tumbled under the challenge of Ezri Konsa and on-field official Robert Jones pointed to the spot.

Konsa in particular was unhappy and replays showed the contact to be minimal, yet the original decision stood.

In truth, the visitors deserved little from a contest in which they never truly got going.

With Martinez and Youri Tielemans sidelined by injury, Unai Emery’s team also lost Morgan Rogers during the first half here and for the first time in what has been an excellent season, they looked a side running out of gas.

That may not matter in the race for a top-four finish. Should Tottenham lost to Liverpool later on Sunday, Villa will need just one more win to secure Champions League football.

But this was not a performance to inspire confidence they can mount a comeback in Thursday’s Europa Conference League semi-final against Olympiacos. Emery’s men will go to Greece with a 4-2 deficit from last week’s first leg. Their exploits in that pulsating match perhaps told here as they suffered their first-ever defeat at the Amex Stadium.

Brighton, winless in six, are one of the few teams to have suffered worse injury luck than Villa this season, with just five of their XI having started the 6-1 defeat in the reverse fixture last September.

Only one Seagulls player had scored a goal in 13-and-a-half hours of league football heading into the match. It was nearly 15 hours by the time Pedro nodded home his rebound.

Adringa did his best to improve that statistic with a powerful drive Olsen was forced to parry away. When Adam Webster then headed narrowly over from a corner, it was the hosts who had started better.

Nicolo Zaniolo had travelled to the south coast but was not part of the matchday squad and his absence became more significant when Rogers pulled up off the ball and was forced off inside the opening half-hour. Emery had little option but to introduce Matty Cash to play on the right of midfield.

The match was crying out for a moment of quality and Watkins nearly provided it, showing great skill to cut inside Lewis Dunk only to lose the ball when he tried to tee-up a shot for himself, rather than playing in Moussa Diaby.

Brighton continued to look marginally more likely to make a breakthrough and Olsen had to be quick off his line to beat Adringa to Pedro’s through ball, the keeper taking a nasty blow to the shoulder as the attacker dived in.

It did not affect him right on the stroke of half-time when he prevented Gross from putting the hosts ahead. The midfielder caught the Villa defence napping but not Olsen, who stayed alert to save with his legs.

Villa looked sharper in the early stages of the second half and finally had home keeper Bart Verbruggen worried when Cash unleashed a 25-yard drive which dipped a foot wide of the post.

But there were still nervy moments at the back and Pau Torres was required to dive at full stretch to turn behind Adringa’s low cross with Welbeck waiting to pounce.

Then there were more Olsen heroics. Adringa raced in field, played in Pedro and Villa’s keeper spread himself to block the shot at the near post.

Gross then thought he had put the hosts in front when he turned home Igor’s cross, only for a VAR check to rule he had strayed just offside.

Villa suffered frustration of their own with 11 minutes remaining when Bailey blocked a clearance and McGinn turned home. The flag was immediately raised and the VAR check confirmed the skipper had been offside by inches.

The hosts continued to have the better of the openings with Danny Welbeck looping a header just wide with Olsen helpless.

With three minutes remaining, Brighton finally made the breakthrough. Adringa got the wrong side of Konsa and went to the ground. The contact appeared minimal but VAR upheld the decision and though Olsen saved Pedro’s spot-kick, diving to his right, the ball popped up perfectly for the forward to head home the rebound and he became the first Brighton player to score since March.

Teams

Brighton (4-2-3-1): Verbruggen, Veltman, Dunk, Webster, Igor, Gilmour (Baleba 88), Gross, Buonanotte (Enciso 61), Pedro, Adringa (Barco 90+3), Welbeck (Moder 88) Subs not used: Fati, Offiah, Peupion, O’Mahony, Steele (gk).

Villa (4-4-2): Olsen, Konsa (Chambers 90), Carlos, Torres, Digne (Moreno 90), Bailey, McGinn, Luiz, Rogers (Cash 26), Diaby (Duran 73), Watkins Subs not used: Chambers, Lenglet, Kesler-Hayden, Iroegbunam, Kellyman, Gauci (gk).