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‘Complete defeat’ – Aaron Wan-Bissaka was too ‘strong’ in Brighton’s loss to Man Utd, admits Kaoru Mitoma.
A “complete defeat” against Aaron Wan-Bissaka in Brighton’s FA Cup loss to Manchester United has been acknowledged by Kaoru Mitoma.
The Red Devils defeated Brighton in a thrilling penalty shootout triumph at Wembley in June, securing their spot in the FA Cup final after the teams were deadlocked at 0-0 after 120 minutes of play.
On Sunday night, Wan-Bissaka held Mitoma on a tight leash with many crunching tackles throughout the game and won one-on-one matches.
The winger had no qualms recognizing that Wan-Bissaka had entirely outperformed him despite his stellar showing this season under Roberto De Zerbi, with 10 goals and seven assists in 31 games.
“He is a strong opponent, that is what I thought while I was playing. But there were a lot of situations where his legs stretched at the end or he got the ball down to the back. I think it was a complete defeat,” Mitoma told reporters after the game.
The Japanese winger was also livid with himself for not taking the chances he was able to get and admitted that he had room for improvement.
“I regret that I didn’t score a goal despite having a few chances to do so,” he added. “And it’s difficult to score penalties. So I think I could have done something more before that (penalty shootout). I haven’t played against (Manchester United), but all their players are of high quality individually so we had to be careful on the counter-attacks. But I think the match as a whole went well, but they had qualities at the end. I also need to improve.”
On Wednesday, the Seagulls will play their next game against Nottingham Forest, while United will go to London to play Tottenham in the Premier League.