Ed Aarons’ match report has landed, so I’ll leave you with that. Thanks for your company and emails - goodnight.
Full time: Brighton 1-1 West Ham
Peep peep! Another frustrating night for West Ham, whose Europa League place is now out of their hands. It could have been worse: they needed an excellent equaliser from Said Benrahma after Danny Welbeck put Brighton ahead in the 84th minute.
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90+2 min Bissouma shoots miles wide from distance. Limits, know, your.
90+2 min “Welbeck’s goal in musical form,” says Oliver Beige.
90+1 min Three minutes of added time. Lingard’s cross did hit Webster’s hand, though he was trying to get it out of the way.
90 min: Big appeal for a West Ham penalty! Lingard’s cross seems to hit the arm of a Brighton defender, but nothing is given and there’s no VAR intervention. I’d like to see that again.
89 min As soon as that goal went in, David Moyes waved his team back the halfway line. He knows how vital a win tonight would be.
It’s Benrahma’s first goal for West Ham. Coufal’s cross was headed away to the edge of the D, where Benrahma retrived the loose ball and then shaped a lovely curling shot that beat Sanchez to his left and went in off the inside of the post.
GOAL! Brighton 1-1 West Ham (Benrahma 87)
Said Benrahma equalises with a beautiful goal!
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86 min If it stays like this, Spurs and Everton will really fancy their chances of stealing a Europa League place from West Ham.
The substitute Percy Tau made it with a delicious angled through ball towards Welbeck. Fabianski came to meet him on the edge of the area, so Welbeck lifted the ball over him on the run. A good finish, though Fabianski made up his mind for him.
GOAL! Brighton 1-0 West Ham (Welbeck 84)
A huge goal for Spurs, Everton, Liverpool and even Brighton!
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84 min Brighton bring on Andi Zeqiri for Leandro Trossard.
83 min: Dawson misses a great chance! Cresswell’s corner beats everyone and is picked up by Benrahma on the far side of the field. He puts in a terrific cross that is headed just wide of the far post by Dawson. That’s a seriously good chance for somebody so good in the air.
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82 min Fornals wins a corner for West Ham, who are stirring for one last push.
81 min Burn makes an important interception to stop Antonio putting Benrahma through on goal.
80 min This match in musical form.
78 min “81st-minute Lallana winner still on,” vociferates Matt Dony. “Come join me and Copestake on the corner, Rob. We can all throw metaphorical empty beer bottles at City, like the petty, tribalistic muppets that football turns us into (no matter how much we try to deny it).”
76 min Both teams continue to huff and puff to no great effect. We’ve had three shots on target all night.
73 min Another change for Brighton: Percy Tau replaces Ali Jahanbakhsh.
72 min Now West ham are enjoying a decent spell of possession. Fornals beats the keeper Sanchez to a loose ball on the left edge of the area, but his subsequent cross is parried away by Sanchez. No matter: Fornals was proabbly offside.
69 min Brighton have been the better team in the last 20 minutes or so, and West Ham might be revising their ambitions. One point is literally better than none.
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67 min A change for Brighton: Adam Lallana replaces Steven Alzate in midfield.
64 min A West Ham change: Said Benrahma replaces Jarrod Bowen.
60 min All we are saying is give us a shot on target. Lingard tries and fails, hoofing over from 20 yards.
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59 min Nothing comes of the corner but Brighton regain possession and continue to pin West Ham back.
58 min This is a decent spell for Brighton, probably their best of the match, and Jahanbakhsh wins another corner.
55 min: Chance for Brighton! Burn sprays a long crossfield pass towards Jahanbakhsh, which the stretching Cresswell heads back towards his own goal. Fabianski comes a long way, to the left edge of the area, but is beaten to the ball by Jahanbakhsh. He shoots first time from a very tight angle and the ball bounces just wide of the far post.
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53 min Trossard’s long-range stinger is blocked. Gross picks up the rebound and plays in Jahanbakhsh, whose shot from a tight angle is beaten away by Fabianski.
51 min Cresswell’s cross is headed over by Soucek, under pressure from Burn.
50 min Brighton almost take the lead on the break. Jahanbakhsh gets clear on the right, cuts into the area and slides a low cross-shot that is kicked away by the stretching Fabianski.
47 min Bowen’s cross is crucially cut out at the near post by Webster. West Ham have picked up where they left off.
46 min An early effort from Antonio, who thrashes over from long range after a barnstorming run.
46 min Peep peep! Brighton begin the second half. It’s a big 45 minutes for West Ham, who need to win to keep Europa League qualification in their own hands.
Half-time reading
Half time: Brighton 0-0 West Ham
Peep peep!
45 min At the other end, Alzate’s long-range drive is blocked by Ogbonna.
44 min Bowen’s low cross from the right of the area finds Fornals, whose first-time shot is again blocked by a defender in the six-yard box. Moments later, a swirling long-range drive from Soucek is beaten away by Sanchez!
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43 min West Ham’s greater need is starting to show; they have been much the better team for the last 20 minutes or so.
41 min: Fornals misses a good chance! After a slick passing move, Cresswell cut the ball back sharply to Fornals in the area. He took a touch and hit a shot that was blocked in the six-yard box, though I’m not sure it was on target anyway.
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41 min “As a sad Everton fan I enjoyed the Foxes’ trophy triumph and I hope Rodgers sticks with Leicester,” says Mary Waltz. “The working-class ethos of Leicester is a soothing antidote to the Super League fungus that tried to ruin the PL.”
The celebrations were particularly charming.
What an incredible moment 💙
— SPORTbible (@sportbible) May 15, 2021
pic.twitter.com/6jqWVjJgaF
39 min Fornals beats Webster with a glorious turn 30 yards from goal, but White comes across to block him on the edge of the area.
35 min West Ham are starting to spend more time in the Brighton half. The low-key start to the game makes it easy to forget how important this is for West Ham. They’ll happily take a filthy 1-0 win.
33 min Lingard’s cross from the right is headed back across goal by Antonio and booted away by Burn. I’m not sure why Antonio didn’t go for goal, although it doesn’t matter because he was offside.
30 min So far this has definitely been more comedown than afterparty. We still haven’t had a shot on target.
28 min “As this seems to be the street corner where sad Liverpool fans hang out,” begins Ian Copestake, “let me just say that, in the parlance of our times, I’m ‘psyched’ by Brendan Rodgers’ win.”
The same, and I’m not even a Liverpool fan. He’s a class act.
27 min Lingard slithers into the area but then falls over. He must have slipped because nobody appealed for a penalty, and VAFR didn’t get involved.
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25 min Cresswell’s dangerous cross just evades the stretching Antonio at the near post.
25 min It’s still Brighton 0-0 West Ham. That’s shots on target, never mind goals.
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24 min Saying which, Jahanbakhsh’s snapshot from the edge of the area is blocked.
23 min So far it’s been groundhog game for Brighton: lots of neat, precise passing, bugger all goal threat.
20 min Cresswell’s corner from the left skims off the head of Dawson, eight yards out, and flies across to the other side of the field. That looked like a decent chance, though we haven’t seen a replay. It might have been slightly too high for him.
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18 min Bissouma is booked for crumping Lingard after the ball had gone.
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16 min Bowen wins a corner for West Ham, which he’ll take himself. He doesn’t clear the first man.
14 min Jahanbakhsh plays a good pass out to Moder, who galumphs into the area from the left and tries to return the ball to Jahanbakhsh. Rice reads the play well and makes a good interception.
11 min Gross gets to the byline on the right and hammers a dangerous low cross that flashes through the six-yard box.
10 min With nothing happening on the field, the camera cuts to the suspended Lewis Dunk sipping a hot beverage in the stands. Apparently Brighton have never won a Premier League game without him.
7 min A decent spell of possession for West Ham ends with an overhit cross by Coufal.
4 min Nothing to report so far. Brighton are having plenty of the ball, as you’d expect.
2 min As expected, Brighton are playing a back three, though it’s Pascal Gross rather than Steven Alzate at right wing-back.
1 min Peeeeep peeeeep! West Ham kick from left to right. They’re in their black away kit; Brighton are in blue and white.
“The FA Cup was alright, I guess, but it’s no Premier League,” says Matt Dony, Liverpool fan. “Wonderfully, the league feels all relevant and important again (since Thursday night). Looking forward to a Lallana winner in the 81st minute. West Ham westhamming the run in, like we all secretly expected they would.”
The teams in (possible) formation
Brighton (3-4-2-1) Sanchez; White, Webster, Burn; Gross, Alzate, Bissouma, Moder; Jahanbakhsh, Trossard; Welbeck.
Substitutes: Steele, Karbownik, Mac Allister, Lallana, Caicedo, Connolly, Andone, Tau, Zeqiri.
West Ham (4-2-3-1) Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Lingard, Fornals; Antonio.
Substitutes: Randolph, Balbuena, Diop, Fredericks, Johnson, Noble, Yarmolenko, Benrahma, Odubeko.
Referee Andre Marriner.
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Leicester win the FA Cup!
Chelsea 0-1 Leicester For the first time in their history, Leicester have won the FA Cup. Youri Tielemans scored a wonderful goal, Kasper Schmeichel made two immense saves and then Chelsea had a late equaliser ruled out by VAR. Get all the reaction with Scott Murray.
Team news
💪 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐀𝐋𝐁𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐔𝐏 💪
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) May 15, 2021
📲 https://t.co/S3j1TIvOB3#BHAFC 🔵⚪ pic.twitter.com/CZ5U7Ly6yM
Declan Rice is back! 💪
— West Ham United (@WestHam) May 15, 2021
Here's how we line-up tonight...#BHAWHU pic.twitter.com/RL22JrwQIo
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Brighton and Hove Albion versus Wes- ah what’s the point, you’re all following the FA Cup final, aren’t you? Quite right too, but maybe you’ll join us later for the afterparty at the Amex Stadium. At least I hope it’s an afterparty; a comedown can’t be ruled out, especially by those of us with memories of Brighton 0-0 Everton last month.
Either way, it’s a very important game for West Ham. Their chance of qualifying for the Champions League has almost gone, but a Europa League place is still in their hands. If they win their last three games - tonight, West Brom (A) and Southampton (H) - there’s nothing Spurs, Everton, the Spice Girls or anyone else can do to stop them.
This looks the toughest game of the three. Brighton might be in 17th place, but all that does is challenge the cliche that the league table never lies. They are a very accomplished team, at least in the first three quarters of the pitch, and will give West Ham a game tonight. Literally.
Kick off 8pm.
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