When it comes to Alexis Mac Allister’s career highlights, nothing will ever quite compare to winning a World Cup.
Converting a 99th-minute penalty to beat Manchester United in the English Premier League will not be too far down the Argentina midfielder’s list of feats, though.
Mac Allister on Thursday demonstrated the composure of a world champion by dispatching a penalty into the top corner with virtually the last kick of the game to earn Brighton & Hove Albion a 1-0 win over Manchester United.
Photo: Reuters
In the last of the allotted five minutes of stoppage-time, United defender Luke Shaw patted the ball away with his raised hand after a corner was swung in from the right.
The referee awarded the spot-kick after being told to look at the incident on the pitch-side monitor, and Mac Allister kept his cool.
“Of course, I was a little bit nervous, as always,” said Mac Allister, who was one of Argentina’s unlikely stars in their run to a third World Cup title late last year in Qatar. “It was the last minute, everyone is going to talk about it, but I’m happy every time I have the opportunity to score a goal, so really happy for the team.”
Brighton earned partial revenge for their loss to United in a penalty shoot-out in their FA Cup semi-final 12 days earlier and moved into sixth place, eight points behind fourth-placed United having played one game less in the race for UEFA Champions League qualification.
United stayed two points behind third-placed Newcastle United and four points ahead of Liverpool, who have played one game more.
“There is now a real chase,” Shaw said. “People around us are picking up points, but it’s in our hands.”
Shaw said he got a “little nudge” as he jumped to attempt to head away the ball, but accepted “the hand shouldn’t be there.”
“I own up to it, it cost us the game,” the England leftback said.
The dramatic end of the match brought back memories of a meeting between Brighton and United at the Amex Stadium in 2020, which was decided by a converted penalty from United’s Bruno Fernandes in the 10th minute of stoppage-time. This time, Brighton were on the right side of a late penalty, scoring their latest-ever goal in the Premier League and the latest ever against United in the competition.
Brighton manager Roberto de Zerbi felt a sense of justice after his team’s impressive display at Wembley Stadium last month.
“Both games, I think we played better than United,” De Zerbi said.
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