Roberto De Zerbi more 'proud' of Nottingham Forest defeat than wins over Chelsea and Liverpool

The Albion travelled to the City Ground less then three days after they played 120 minutes of football in their FA Cup semi-final defeat to Manchester United. Despite taking the lead and drawing at half-time, De Zerbi’s side went on to lose their third game in their last four.

Ahead of Brighton’s next game against Wolves, De Zerbi said he loved his players more following the Forest defeat. The Italian even claimed he was prouder of the performance in Nottinghamshire then the ones which secured victories against Liverpool and Chelsea.

De Zerbi said: “I love my players more in Nottingham and Wembley than at Stamford Bridge for example [where Albion won 2-1], because I understood our passion, our loyalty, the reaction we had in Nottingham we had was of people really caring, and the fans should be proud, not of Stamford Bridge, but the performance of Nottingham.

"Because we gave everything in Nottingham even though we were tired and we had limits in that game, even if we were disappointed, but they gave the players everything in Nottingham as well. I am proud more in the last game when we lost than one victory in Chelsea, or against Liverpool.”

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De Zerbi admitted Wembley heartache had affected his team on Wednesday night, claiming the squad’s overall inexperience of big games meant they carried the emotion of the semi-final into the game with the relegation-threatened side.

He said: “We should have forgotten the Wembley match, but instead we brought our disappointment to the game at Nottingham. This can happen when you are not used to playing so many important games in a row.

"Our improvement will be to get used to playing these types of games if we want to become bigger. In 90% of my press conferences I have spoken about the mentality and the level of the head and we finished today speaking about the same thing. I am not speaking about the quality or the ability on the pitch, but I think we lost the game in Nottingham before we started.

"When I spoke at the last press conference, Nottingham was the most important game of the season because I understood, unfortunately I am not so young, after the game at Wembley, straight away after the game I began to explain the difficulty of the game in Nottingham.

"It’s a very important day, the Nottingham game, because we have to remember every day, if we want to become bigger, we have to give our best, to be focussed 100% game and training session always.”

Brighton will look to return to winning ways tomorrow when they face Wolves at the Amex Stadium – 3PM kick off.