Roberto De Zerbi proud of Brighton despite defeat to AEK Athens in Europa League opener - 'The result is unfair'

Roberto De Zerbi blamed defensive mistakes for Brighton’s opening Europa League loss, but insisted that he was generally happy with his team’s performance.

Brighton fans spent all summer looking forward to the club’s first ever appearance in European competition, but AEK Athens spoiled the party by edging a 3-2 thriller at the American Express Community Stadium.

De Zerbi’s side were without central defender and captain Lewis Dunk due to injury, and his absence appeared to show as the hosts conceded three soft goals.

The Greek visitors scored twice from set-pieces, though Brighton pegged them back twice thanks to two Joao Pedro penalties.

Ezequiel Ponce capitalised on some more shoddy defending to snatch the three points for AEK late on, delivering a blow to Brighton’s hopes of qualifying for the knockout stages.

While De Zerbi acknowledged his side were the architects of their own downfall, he didn’t believe they deserved to lose.

“I’m really proud of my players, for the performance,” the Italian coach told TNT Sports.

“We were unlucky, I think the result is unfair. I think we played well, I’m really pleased for the performance, we played very well with personality.

“Maybe we don’t have the right experience, we have younger players and we can pay [the price] for this.

“I’m really proud of the performance. For us it was a really historic day. For our fans, I’m sorry for them. We can decide how we are going to play, but we cannot decide the result.”

Pressed further on whether Dunk’s absence left Brighton’s defence fragile, De Zerbi wasn’t convinced the England international would have made a difference.

“Dunk is one of the best players in our squad, but we can also concede with Dunk.

“We made three of four mistakes, [and] conceded two goals from set pieces. And the third goal, an incredible goal to concede – I am not able to explain the third goal.

“But in the end I’m happy for the performance, and I have to focus on the performance because I cannot explain how we conceded three goals.”

Elsewhere in Group B, Ajax and Marseille played out a thrilling 3-3 draw in Amsterdam with former Arsenal and Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring a brace for the visitors.

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