Van Hecke and Veltman keep champion City in check with flashy Brighton

In a ninety-minute soccer commercial, Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City drew 1-1 in the Premier League.

For Brighton, the point was enough for a ticket to the preliminary round of the Europa League. City recently secured the league title, but still entered the match almost at full strength.

Both teams made a great game of it, especially in the first half. The youthful Brighton combined as smoothly and easily as the champion and both teams rained the chances on each other.

At Brighton, Jan Paul van Hecke had a starting place for the third time. The former NAC Breda and sc Heerenveen defender played a fine game, but failed to clear a Phil Foden effort off the line in the 25th minute.

Moments later, 19-year-old Julio Enciso equalized, with a beautiful outburst from about 25 meters into the crossbar. Only after an hour of play did the pace slow down, but the game remained carefree.

In the last quarter of an hour, former Ajacied Joël Veltman also came on for the home side. Erling Haaland thought to score his 37th Premier League goal of the season, but the goal was disallowed on the advice of VAR because the Norwegian had held his opponent before he headed in.

Brighton, making their debut in Europe next season, reached a total of twenty goal attempts against the national champions. Only Wolverhampton Wanderers also recorded so many goal attempts against coach Pep Guardiola’s City in 2019. City stuck to thirteen goal attempts against Brighton.