Brajan Gruda rolled home a dramatic late winner as Brighton roared back to stun Manchester City with a thrilling 2-1 victory at the Amex Stadium on Sunday.
Seagulls midfielder Gruda raced clear to calmly finish in the 89th minute after fellow substitute James Milner became the second-oldest scorer in Premier League history by converting a penalty against his former club.
Erling Haaland stabbed City into a first-half lead on his 100th English top-flight appearance but also failed to capitalise on a host of other openings.
Defeat for Pep Guardiola’s side was a second in succession following last weekend’s deflating 2-0 home loss to Tottenham, with Albion jubilantly celebrating a first league victory of the campaign.
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Rodri made his first league start in almost a year as part of four alterations to the City team which began against Spurs, while Brighton made three changes from last Sunday’s 2-0 reverse at Everton.
Guardiola’s men had the better of a tight first-half tactical battle, with Haaland initially squandering a hat trick of chances.
The Norway international fired tamely at Bart Verbruggen inside nine minutes before dragging another opportunity wide of the right post and then seeing a close-range header pushed away.
Between the first and second of those openings, a low shot from Brighton winger Kaoru Mitoma was turned behind by City keeper James Trafford.
Haaland eventually found his range 11 minutes before the break.
After Yankuba Minteh was dispossessed by Rayan Aït-Nouri and Oscar Bobb drove towards Brighton’s 18-yard box, Omar Marmoush bundled his way past Jan Paul van Hecke and poked through the legs of Lewis Dunk for Haaland to clinically lift the ball over Verbruggen.
Brighton were offering little from an attacking perspective and could have fallen further behind with an hour played when the lively Bobb threatened to divert home Marmoush’s low cross from left.
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Albion head coach Fabian Hürzeler responded by making a quadruple substitution, including introducing Milner and Gruda, which sparked an instant shift in momentum.
Trafford turned over from Minteh before referee Darren England pointed to the spot after Dunk’s powerful volley across goal from Yasin Ayari‘s free-kick struck the raised arm of Matheus Nunes.
Aged 39 years and 239 days, Milner became Brighton’s third penalty taker in as many games and emphatically dispatched his maiden goal for the club into the bottom left corner in the 67th minute.
The veteran midfielder, who last found the net in Liverpool‘s 4-0 win at Leicester City on Boxing Day 2019, paid tribute to former Reds team-mate Diogo Jota — whose No. 20 shirt he has adopted this season — with his celebration.
Teddy Sheringham — aged 40 years and 268 days — is the only older player to have scored a Premier League goal.
Brighton swiftly became the dominant team. Trafford superbly clawed away the ball to keep out Van Hecke’s deflected effort in the 88th minute before Gruda sparked wild celebrations.
The German midfielder, who scored in Albion’s midweek 6-0 Carabao Cup success at Oxford, burst on to Mitoma’s through-ball and then coolly rounded Trafford to slot into the unguarded net.
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