Aston Villa’s Champions League Dreams Dashed By Brighton’s Last-minute Goal

Aston Villa’s UEFA Champions League campaign hopes were left hanging in the balance as they suffered a late 1-0 defeat at the hands of Brighton at the Amex Stadium.

The game started with Brighton showing intent as Simon Adingra tested Villa’s goalkeeper Robin Olsen with two smart saves early on. Villa, aiming for a top-four finish, faced further setbacks as the in-form Morgan Rogers had to leave the pitch due to injury in the 26th minute, adding to their growing list of sidelined players.

Despite Villa’s resilience, Brighton continued to press, with Olsen making a crucial save deep into added time in the first half to deny Pascal Groß a goal. The second half saw both teams struggling to create clear-cut chances initially, with Groß failing to find a teammate from a free kick.

As the game progressed, Villa looked more offensive, with Matty Cash coming close with a thunderous strike that narrowly missed the target. Olsen once again came to Villa’s rescue with a crucial save to deny Pedro, keeping his team in the game.

Brighton seemed to break the deadlock in the 68th minute through Groß, but VAR intervened and ruled out the goal for offside. Villa had a goal disallowed as well, with John McGinn deemed offside. However, Brighton eventually secured the win in the 87th minute after Ezri Konsa’s foul in the box led to Olsen correctly guessing the direction of the Brazilian’s penalty, but he couldn’t prevent the headed rebound from going in.

Aston Villa nervously keeping an eye on Spurs, as the seven-point over the fifth-placed London team seems risky given their two games in hand.