Julio Enciso’s gorgeous long-range strike secured Brighton’s qualification for the Europa League in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City on Wednesday.

The Paraguay worldwide unleashed an unstoppable effort from round 25 meters to even the rating after Phil Foden had fired Premier League champion City forward at Amex Stadium.

Some extent means Brighton is assured to complete sixth, its highest-ever last place in English soccer’s prime flight.

It marks an impressive first season in cost for supervisor Roberto de Zerbi, who solely took over from Graham Potter in September after the previous Brighton boss left for Chelsea.

“It’s a fantastic goal, we achieved an incredible target,” De Zerbi mentioned. “Man City is the best team in the world. For us it was a very tough game. We deserve the point. We deserve the Europa League.”

The membership confronted an unsure future on the time however has gone on to flourish below the Italian, who additionally led the workforce to the semifinals of the FA Cup this season.

PHOTOS: Brighton attracts 1-1 with Man City to safe Europa League qualification

Sixth place beats Brighton’s earlier highest end of ninth, which it achieved below Potter final 12 months.

“You never know in the early part of the season what may happen when you hire a new coach,” Brighton chairman Tony Bloom mentioned. “Fortunately we hired the perfect man. The players have taken to him so magnificently. His motivational skills, tactical skills and getting the best out of our players has been absolutely superb.”

The draw ended City’s 12-game profitable streak within the league, which had seen Pep Guardiola’s workforce overhaul long-time chief Arsenal on the prime and win a fifth title six years.

With a 3rd league championship already wrapped up, City had little to play for apart from enhancing its factors whole.

“The game we played, 48 hours after we drank all the alcohol in Manchester, 48 hours later we behaved and we showed why we were the champions against that team,” Guardiola joked in reference to City’s title celebrations on Sunday.

Having rested a lot of his star gamers towards Chelsea on Sunday, Guardiola recalled Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne to his beginning lineup, with John Stones, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva additionally again.

Haaland twice had probabilities to open the scoring earlier than turning supplier for Foden to place City forward within the twenty fifth minute.

At the opposite finish, Danny Welbeck had already hit the crossbar with a free-kick.

The equalizer got here from Enciso and it was a strike worthy sending his workforce to the heights of the Europa League as he launched a right-footed shot into the highest nook within the thirty eighth.

Haaland thought he had scored his 53rd objective of the season with a late header, nevertheless it was dominated out by VAR after he was adjudged to have pulled Levi Colwill’s shirt beforehand.

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