De Zerbi Urges Brighton “to dream and achieve Europe” In Top-Four Race

Brighton manager, Roberto De Zerbi has urged his players “to dream and achieve Europe” after defeating Bournemouth 2-0 at Vitality Stadium.

Goals from Evan Ferguson and substitute, Julio Enciso saw Brighton claim a comfortable victory over the relegation battling Cherries on Tuesday (4 April), meaning that the Seagulls currently sit sixth in the Premier League and four points off fourth-placed Tottenham.

Brighton’s next league clash however sees them head to Spurs on Saturday 8 April in a 3pm BST kick-off, knowing that victory will put them potentially just one point off a top-four spot with two games in hand – soon to be three games in hand come FA Cup semi-final weekend of 22-23 April.

“We have to keep our humility, but we want to dream and achieve Europe,” commented De Zerbi on what Brighton players must do to achieve a top-four finish.

The Italian went on to iterate that it is important that the players “believe” in that potential achievement, whilst admitting that he is confident that they also share that belief based on their performance against Bournemouth.

De Zerbi though added that he was happy with his team’s performance last night heading into a crunch test at Tottenham on Saturday, as he said: “It was a very difficult game but a great win. It was a big performance, the players were fantastic.

“I am very pleased with the quality of play and mentality because we knew before it would be a very difficult game.

Perhaps we made too many mistakes because we could have scored more goals, but I’m really pleased for my players.”

Albion will also be buoyant by their unbeaten away form since losing 2-1 at Manchester City in late October, having since taken seven wins and four draws in all competitions, excluding their Carabao Cup exit to Charlton on penalties after a goalless draw in the Fourth Round.

De Zerbi however felt that Brighton “are playing very well at home too,” but feels that “there is more space away from home but my players have fantastic character to play our way away from home as they do at our stadium.”