'We were quite lazy' - Fabian Hurzeler gives brutal Brighton verdict after narrow win in Getafe

Malick Yalcouye fired Premier League high-flyers Brighton to a 1-0 win at Getafe but head coach Fabian Hurzeler was not pleased with the performance.

The impressive Yalcouye scored his fourth goal of the season to break the deadlock in a hard-fought encounter.

The Seagulls are now the only team not to concede a goal in the Conference League so far and their seven points from three matches leaves them fifth in the table.

Brighton’s win in Madrid concludes a gruelling run of five consecutive away matches where they travelled to Jablonec, Liverpool, Manchester City (twice) and Getafe.

Hurzeler said his team deserved to win but also said they were lazy at times.

“That's what we expected,” said Hurzeler to TNT Sports after the match. “These games in the Conference League are different. You have to beat the low block, you have to understand what the opponents are looking for in the game and therefore you have to always be patient in these games and I think we did it today.

“We didn't play our best game, to be fair, we had a few moments where we were quite lazy with the easy things, we didn't do the simple things on the highest level, but in the end, you said it, we kept a clean sheet.

Hurzeler added: “The third clean sheet in a row in this tournament and then we scored in the right moment the goal and I think we deserve to win this game.”

Hurzeler’s five changes

Boss Fabian Hurzeler made five changes to the side which beat Manchester City at the weekend with Yalcouye joining Jaouen Hadjam, Michael Svobada, Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter in the starting line-up.

With the stadium undergoing renovation only 570 Brighton fans could attend, squeezed into a small corner of the north stand behind one of the goals.

They had a good view of Hinshelwood taking the first shot of the match, a 25-yard drive tipped wide by Getafe keeper David Soria.

Rutter then rolled defender Sebastian Boselli but skewed his shot across goal and wide.

They threatened again when Hadjam got in behind, only to lose his footing when he tried to cut back inside, with Rutter unable to convert the loose ball.

Brighton were almost caught out from a Getafe corner on the half-hour mark with Bart Verbruggen forced into a sharp reaction save from Ivan Azon’s snap-shot.

Hadjam hits the post

The Seagulls should have scored when Rutter’s through-ball sent Hadjam racing clean through. Hadjam got to the ball before Soria but his finish clipped the keeper and came back off a post, with Yalcouye’s attempt from the rebound blocked on the line.

Azon threatened the Brighton goal again in first-half stoppage time but was once again denied by Verbruggen.

After the break some good build-up play from Rutter and Hadjam set up substitute Luka Vuskovic, but his shot was always curling away from the target.

The breakthrough arrived in the 64th minute when Pascal Gross lifted a diagonal ball towards the far post.

Overlapping full-back Costinha had acres of space on the right of the penalty area and cushioned his header back across goal.

Yalcouye’s timing was impeccable as he met the ball with a thumping header which flew past Soria and in off the crossbar.

Ibrahim Osman could have doubled the lead seconds after coming on but he could not make contact with Diego Gomez’s low cross.