De Zerbi after Brighton fall to Fulham: “we’ll react the right way on Thursday.” | OneFootball

After suffering a 3-0 defeat against Fulham on Saturday, Brighton manager Roberto De Zerbi expressed confidence in his team’s ability to bounce back Thursday against Roma.

Goals from Fulham’s Harry Wilson, Rodrigo Muniz, and substitute Adama Traore sunk the Seagulls, who dropped to ninth position in the Premier League table after being leapfrogged by West Ham and Newcastle United.

De Zerbi acknowledged the team’s subpar performance, stating, “I think we deserved to lose, we played without the right energy but it can be like this. To compete this season is tough [but we have to] do better than today.”

“In football you have to play every game in every competition at the same level. I am working a lot on keeping the right energy and mentality in our work. It’s a challenge every day for the club, for me, the players. But we are fighting and we have to show we deserve to play to keep at this level.”

Despite the result, the Italian technician stressed the need to demonstrate their quality on Thursday when they travel to the Italian capital to face Roma for the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.

“Today we can’t explain the game with possession, shots, chances to score. The game is easier than the result says. We didn’t play well and Fulham played a good game—not an amazing one—but certainly enough to win.”

“We can play much better than we did today but I know my players will react in the right way on Thursday.”