Crystal Palace and Brighton play out bore draw
By Robert O'Connor, PA
Crystal Palace and Brighton played out a forgettable 0-0 draw at Selhurst Park to remain a point apart in mid-table in the Premier League.
There was little to separate the teams in terms of performance, with the visitors shading the possession statistics while Palace had more shots but fewer on target.
This was, in truth, the extent of the difference between them, with neither side deserving more than what they left with.
If anyone deserved more it was the supporters, home and away, who maintained a ferocious atmosphere throughout in south London despite a paucity of anything happening on the pitch to justify it.
Home fans in particular drew enormous glee from a yellow card shown to Brighton’s Georginio Rutter for diving inside the box in the second half after VAR overturned an initial penalty decision.
Palace were without defender Marc Guehi, with Oliver Glasner confirming before kick-off he had suffered a bruised bone in his foot towards the end of Thursday’s Conference League win and would miss the upcoming England internationals.
For Fabian Hurzeler it was a rare case of an unchanged line-up, the first time this season the Brighton boss had stuck with his hand.
Virtually all of the first-half action came in the opening 10 minutes. Maxence Lacroix almost turned Mats Wieffer’s cross into his own net with a wild swing at a clearance, then Brighton’s Diego Gomez brought a good stop out of Dean Henderson.
The Palace goalkeeper’s heroics were bettered moments later when his opposite number Bart Verbruggen flew across goal to deny Ismaila Sarr with a fine one-handed save.
That was it until the final minute of the half when Brighton should have gone ahead. Adam Wharton dawdled on the ball in midfield and was dispossessed by Gomez. The Paraguay international charged upfield and slipped in Yankuba Minteh to his right, but with options in the box Minteh went for glory and found nothing of the sort, skewing an awful shot wide.
Palace messed up a chance of their own early in the second half, Sarr dancing around three defenders when there looked to have been room for a shot, instead picking out Daichi Kamada who spun on the ball and somehow missed the target from 10 yards.
Brighton were awarded a penalty when Rutter went over in the box before the decision was overturned following a pitchside VAR check. Rutter was deemed to have deliberately initiated the contact with Jaydee Canvot and was booked for simulation.
Kamada found space in the box to thump the ball into the side-netting as a tense derby entered its final quarter with only the merest sense a goal might be coming.
It never did. Yeremy Pino came off the bench and went as close as anybody had managed in the final minute of stoppage time, but Verbruggen got down low at his near post to turn away a fierce drive.
