Brighton defender, Jan Paul van Hecke described his post-match chat with Pep Guardiola as “a proud moment” in his career.
Van Hecke played the entirety of Brighton’s comeback 2-1 Premier League win over Manchester City, in which Matt O’Riley scored the winner after Joao Pedro cancelled out Erling Haaland’s rebound opener.
City manager, Guardiola post-match decided to have words with Van Hecke about his performance.
“He said that? Wow, That is good,” commented Van Hecke on Guardiola’s conversation. “It is a proud moment for me. I think he is the best coach in the world.”
The Dutch defender proceeded to explain that Guardiola had wanted to discuss his clash with Haaland, which saw both players booked for the incident.
“He just asked me what happened in the box and I explained. He is a great manager. You see the way his team played at the end of last season, we lost 4-0 and I felt like the whole game I was in a rondo. I only have a lot of respect for him.”
Brighton’s win meant that Man City suffered four consecutive losses in all competitions for the first time since a seven-game winless streak between March – April 2006.
The loss also meant that Guardiola lost four straight matches for the first time as a manager.
Reflecting on the magnitude of what Brighton’s comeback meant for City, Van Hecke revealed that he was aware of the potential feat prior to kick-off, as he felt that the pressure showed in their first-half approach.
“Yes I think you have to be aware of it. They really wanted to win because they are not used to losing. You could feel that in the first 30 minutes, they were really at it.
“I think we are also a really great team and on our day, we can win against anybody which you saw today.
“That first 30 minutes was tough. I think City showed some great qualities, and scored a goal. Bart has some good saves. But we defended well. [Haaland] is a top striker but he needs also some passes from midfielders and centre-backs.
“Our team did really well to press and kept them away from our goal and sometimes you need to defend in the box and I think we did well.”
The 24 year-old praised his teammates for their second-half response as he continued: “After that we started to have more confidence in the game and played better.
“You saw a different team after the break, a bit more aggressive – we showed our qualities. The strikers did really well to push even harder and get pressure high up.”
City were missing players like Ruben Dias and Rodri but Van Hecke dismissed their absence as part of the reason behind City’s loss, as he instead iterated that every club have their injury issues.
“Last season we had big injuries and not a lot of people were speaking about us. I think it is part of football that sometimes you have your best players injured.
“Of course it is harder to play against De Bruyne when he is fit because he is an unbelievable player but I think we missed some players.”
With the Seagulls sat sixth and outside the top-four on goal difference, Van Hecke believes that the victory underlines why the top clubs can’t afford to underestimate Brighton.
“We just need to keep going and improving. We know we can beat the big teams but we also have to beat the lower teams in the table. We need to be consistent.”
Leave a Reply