Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi responds to Wout Weghorst's 'kiss of death'

Roberto de Zerbi has responded to the 'kiss of death' from Wout Weghorst, that immediately preceded Solly March missing his penalty in Brighton's FA Cup semi-final defeat.

It's fair to say that Brighton were pretty unlucky not to reach their first FA Cup final since 1983, with the side dominating much of the 120 minutes against Manchester United.

Instead, the game went down to penalties, in which 12 in-a-row were struck near perfectly, beating both Robert Sanchez, in goal for Brighton, and David de Gea, between the sticks for United.

De Gea barely got near any of the efforts from the Seagulls, despite regularly being seen crouching down between attempts to read a message on his water bottle.

Jadon Sancho was lauded for his bravery of stepping up, and smashing home his effort, getting his redemption from the penalty miss at Wembley that led to England's Euro final loss two years previous.

Instead it went down to March, one of Brighton's best players this season, to miss his effort, the 13th of the shootout, blazing it over the bar.

Somewhat controversially, the effort came after Weghorst had made it 6-6, with the Dutchman playing some mind games, by kissing the ball and having a word with the Brighton player before his attempt.

Whilst some were annoyed with the antics of the striker, Brighton boss De Zerbi isn't too fussed. "It's football. I don't think he [Weghorst] did anything incorrect," the former Sassuolo manager said ahead of his side's game against Nottingham Forest.

Weghorst with March. Image: Alamy

Weghorst has had his detractors since making the loan move to Old Trafford in January, having previously been on loan at Besiktas, from Burnley.

He came on for Bruno Fernandes in the first half of extra time, with fans initially sceptical with penalties looming, before it arose that the Portugal star had an injury.

The forward stepped up and took his spotkick, scoring with aplomb, before knee sliding in celebration after Victor Lindelof's winning strike.

Weghorst had actually wanted to take one of the earlier attempts, saying, "I wanted to take one, I wanted to take one of the first five, but the trainer decided this."

He also revealed what he'd said to March, before the Brighton man's penalty, saying, "I already said to do it before we started, to some of our guys but nobody did it. I scored, saw the ball and tried to get a few advantages to maybe help us win it.

"I walked to him and said some things but at the end, I went to him because I felt sorry because that was the one that missed. I just tried everything and normally it doesn't make a difference but maybe it did."