Brighton manager Dario Vidosic was “very disappointed” as he lamented the way his team played in their League Cup tie against Leicester City.
“We just, we weren’t there tonight,” he said.
Leicester also won the penalty shootout which took place after both sides played out a scoreless draw at Broadfield Stadium.
Vidosic made a few personnel changes from their most recent match, a 3-2 WSL victory against West Ham, as he injected Bruna Vilamala and Michelle Agyemang into the starting lineup and placed Nikita Parris on the bench, while Fran Kirby was not included in the squad for this tie.
The Seagulls however seemed to struggle with their cohesion and chemistry in attack without the creativity and scoring prowess of Parris and Kirby in the starting side.
“We made a lot of technical errors tonight…some really simple turnovers…it just felt like a lot of things were lacking tonight,” Vidosic said.
Embed from Getty ImagesLeicester manager Amandine Miquel had a much more positive view of her team’s improved display in their second match this month facing Brighton at their home ground.
“The whole team had better intentions today and when the whole team is of the same rhythm and is coordinated…then it is harder for the opponent,” she said.
The Foxes certainly succeeded in making the match hard for their opponent if Vidosic’s assessment of their performance is anything to go by.
“I felt like they (Leicester) won all 50/50s even when it was 80, 90 percent in our favour we would still lose that duel…we knew they would come here and they would fight and try to rectify the game from last time,” the Australian said.
Miquel noted it was a focus for the team to play with more energy and intensity compared to their last meeting with Brighton, a 1-0 WSL loss.
“We worked all week to be better than last time…we worked to be pressing slightly higher and be much more aggressive,” she said.
Alas, not every match is going to be perfect in a long season full of ups and downs and so it is of importance to Vidosic to learn from days like this and look forward to the matches ahead.
“We start with a tough assignment at Chelsea (after the international break) …it’s a fantastic challenge but it’s one that we have to learn a lot from tonight.
“We’ll give it our best, we want to test ourselves against the best…so we’ll dust ourselves off, learn from this and see what we can do when we get back to it,” Vidosic said.
With this Leage Cup result, the Albion remain in first place in Group D with four points while the Foxes jump up to second with three points.
Both sides have difficult fixtures when they return from the international break with Brighton visiting league leaders Chelsea before taking on Bristol City at home in their next League Cup tie, while Leicester faces off against Manchester City in the WSL before a League Cup meeting with Birmingham City.
