Brighton’s De Zerbe explains the “big, big celebration” after not shaking Cooper’s hand

Brighton & Hove Albion manager Roberto De Zerbe said he meant no disrespect towards Steve Cooper by not shaking the Nottingham Forest manager’s hand before he began the jubilant celebrations at the City Ground.

De Zerbe admitted that he and his Brighton players celebrated as if they had won the Champions League when the final whistle sounded, marking their 3-2 victory.

But he insisted he did not mean it to be a disrespect to his rival, after an eventful match that saw two penalty kicks awarded and Brighton’s Lewis Dunk shown a red card in the 73rd minute.

De Zerbe said: “I want to explain my celebration, it was not disrespectful to the opponent.” “We are suffering a lot. We lost a lot of players due to injury. We lost other players in the first half. We received a red card.

“We lost two points in our last game with Sheffield. We lost two points against Fulham. Our last win in the Premier League was at the end of September. This was one of the most difficult moments in my career. Not just in the Premier League, but in my career. It was A big, big celebration.

“Nottingham has a great stadium, a great atmosphere and amazing fans. But I was really proud of the character and attitude we showed.

“We celebrated as if we had won the Champions League final. We had not won the Premier League. But the way we won the game, with ten players out, without our captain, and with the players playing out of position…”

Cooper confirmed that De Zerbe did not shake his hand, but he downplayed the matter.

“I don’t want to get into that too much, to be fair. If you ask me, I’m a British coach and I was brought up to always shake hands after games and show respect. You try to win or lose with dignity,” Cooper said. “I’m not saying he didn’t do that. But if you ask me what I would do, I will always shake hands.

“But I understand that it may be different in other places.”

Brighton lost Tariq Lamptey and Ansu Fati to injury during a first half that saw the visitors bounce back to take a 2-1 lead after Anthony Elanga’s opener gave Forest a third-minute advantage thanks to goals from Ivan Ferguson and Joao Pedro.

Cooper was not happy with Brighton’s third goal, which came after referee Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty after ruling that Chris Wood was guilty of pulling Pedro back.

Forest were then awarded a penalty of their own, after Callum Hudson-Odoi was withdrawn, but only after VAR intervened.

He added: “The penalty decision is the decision for me. If it’s a penalty then you’ll give away a lot of it.” Cuper said: “In the international break you have time to think things through, and I’m really trying to think about how I want to be in the game.” Camp to support the governors and assist in the process.”

“I try to tell myself, let’s not jump on the bandwagon, let’s try to be rational in our way of thinking and our comments. But then we see that from Anthony, one of the best players, and it’s hard to hold him down.

“The belief that he had won the penalty and then missed the penalty which was disallowed, caused hostility on the pitch and in the field.

He added: “We did not play well enough in the first half and that was a big factor in why we did not get the result. The penalty decision was also a big factor. We have to think about why we did not perform as well as we should have done in the first half.”

“He is a calm and composed referee, not only in our country but in the other matches he officiates outside the Premier League… Did he lose control? He must have.” Cooper expects to have a conversation with Howard Webb, head of arbitration at PGMOL.

“I’m sure I’ll call Howard on the phone. I’m sure he’ll want to call me,” Cooper said. “I’ll talk to him. I’ll tell him how I feel. I will not complain or rave. But it’s clear what happened. It wasn’t just that decision, it was also the lack of control.

“It wasn’t like there were a lot of experienced players there, trying to dictate the referee’s opinion. There were a lot of young players on the field.

“We will try to help but we have to defend our club as well, because we can’t make any more decisions like that. It will be interesting to see what he does next week, when there is a little bit of contact inside the box.”

Brighton finished the game with ten men after Lewis Dunk was shown a straight red card for obscene and offensive language, seconds after he was shown a yellow card for skipping the VAR screen when Taylor was assessing a Forest penalty.

But De Zerbe said he would not impose a fine on the defender. He added: “I’m not a policeman, I’m a coach.” “He said he was sorry. He understood he had made a mistake.”

(Photo: Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images)