De Zerbi delighted with Albion's 'spirit and soul'

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Head coach reflects on 3-2 win at Nottingham Forest and his passionate celebration at the final whistle.

Bruce Talbot

2023-11-25T18:18:00Z

Roberto De Zerbi celebrates with Pascal Gross after a tumultuous 3-2 win for Albion.

Roberto De Zerbi says Albion’s ‘spirit and soul’ helped them to a thrilling 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

Albion climbed to seventh after their first Premier League win in seven which was secured despite losing skipper Lewis Dunk to a red card in the second half.

Joao Pedro came off the bench to score twice after Evan Ferguson had equalised Anthony Elanga’s early opener. Morgan Gibbs-White made it 3-2 but Albion dug in and at the final whistle De Zerbi sprinted across the pitch to celebrate in front of 2800 Albion fans.

“Today the spirit and soul made a difference,” said De Zerbi. “We have good players and are a good team and we always have to show this character. We have a lot of injuries at this time and it is one of the toughest moments in my career so that was a big celebration, we are very happy and I am proud of the attitude and character we showed in a really tough moment."

The head coach spoke about his celebration. “It was like a final in Champions League [because of] the way we won the game with ten players and without the captain. I am an emotional coach – it’s part of football," he added.

“I want to explain my celebration. It wasn’t disrespectful towards my opponent, I live inside football so I know about these things but we are suffering a lot through injury. We have ten injuries and lost two more (Ansu Fati and Tariq Lamptey) in the first half and we also suffered a red card. Without ten players injured for us to compete in the Europa League and the Premier League and to be seventh is a good achievement.”

Dunk will miss the trip to Chelsea on Sunday week and De Zerbi was asked about the skipper’s sending off.

"Lewis is a good guy and maybe he made a mistake. He said sorry to everyone and we have to accept the referee’s decision. Dunk is a Brighton fan so we can understand his emotion and his mistake.”