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Brighton 2 Manchester City 2 <i>(aet; Brighton win 5-3 on pens)</i>: New era opens with same old City left down and out

Gordon Tynan
Thursday 25 September 2008 00:00 BST
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On Tuesday Manchester City became the richest club in the world; last night they lost on penalties to Brighton of League One, an impoverished club who just want a ground to call their own. For all their new found riches, Brazilian superstars and 6-0 home wins, same-old-City have not yet gone away it seems. Dutch goalkeeper Michel Kuipers's save from Michael Ball followed by Matt Richards successful spot-kick earned Brighton a 5-3 win on penalties at Withdean Stadium to reach the third round of the Carling Cup.

"We are not going to do crazy stuff," said Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the new chairman, as the deal became official on Tuesday. But that message does not appear to have got through to the players. Gelson Fernandes had finally taken a chance for wasteful City in the 64th minute from Jo's pass and it looked enough to win it until Glenn Murray slotted an 89th-minute Brighton equaliser. The shock looked on when on-loan substitute Joe Anyinsah lashed them ahead five minutes into extra-time, but Stephen Ireland's reply 10 minutes later forced the shoot-out. Excited fans in a record home crowd of 8,729 flooded the pitch at the end after Richards, a defender on loan from Ipswich, put away the winner from the spot.

In this classic cup upset, Brighton's heroes were multiple with Dave Livermore, Tommy Elphick, Murray and Adam Virgo all scoring in the shoot-out before Kuipers' masterful stop.

In their first outing since the £200m Abu Dhabi United Group's takeover, City sent out six players who started Sunday's demolition of Portsmouth. But they took a long time to impose themselves on the battling League One side, who had won only once at home this season and lost to a Walsall team reduced to nine men before half-time on Saturday.

The nearest thing to a goal in the first half came when Brighton's stand-in captain Steve Thomson sliced through the centre of City's defence and drilled his shot against Kasper Schmeichel's left-hand post.

Brighton bridged the gap in class with their commitment and work-rate, closing down smartly and preventing any real flow to the City attacks. City, though, spurned another inviting opening four minutes before the break when Jo set up Pablo Zabaleta to lay off for Michael Johnson but the midfielder's shot skewered wide of the target. Fernandes looked like he had won it when driving in Jo's unselfish assist in the 64th minute and they could have had more but for Kuipers' saves from Jo, who gave a largely sluggish performance, and Ched Evans before Murray came up with a stunning 89th-minute equaliser after Schmeichel could only parry Thomson's shot.

City had been warned when Schmeichel had to race off his line three minutes earlier to deny Murray. But they were still strolling five minutes into extra time when Anyinsah fired home in style from 12 yards after great work by fellow substitute Dean Cox.

Ireland out-fought Elphick and Kuipers to lash home a long ball for a 109th-minute equaliser, but there was to be no denying Brighton the glory.

Brighton: Kuipers, Whing (Cook, 85), El-Abd, Thomson, Richards, Livermore, Murray, Loft (Anyinsah, 68), Fraser (Cox, 74), Virgo, Elphick. Substitutes not used: Sullivan, Hart, Robinson, Wills.

Manchester City: Schmeichel, Zabaleta, Dunne, Ben-Haim, Michael Ball, Kompany, Ireland, Johnson (Elano, 102), Gelson, Sturridge (Evans, 60), Jo (Caicedo, 91). Substitutes not used: Hart, Garrido, Hamann, Logan.

Referee: A D'Urso (Essex).

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