Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma has acknowledged his “complete defeat” against Aaron Wan-Bissaka during Brighton’s FA Cup loss to Manchester United.
The match ended with a thrilling penalty shootout victory for Manchester United at Wembley after the two teams were tied at 0-0 following 120 minutes of action.
Mitoma was kept on a tight leash by Wan-Bissaka throughout the game, with the latter dominating in one-on-one situations and making crunching tackles.
Despite his impressive form this season, with 10 goals and seven assists in 31 appearances, Mitoma accepted that he was outplayed by Wan-Bissaka.
“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.
Mitoma was also disappointed with himself for not taking the chances he had during the game 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 said. “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.”
Brighton will return to action against Nottingham Forest, while Manchester United will face Tottenham in the Premier League on the same day.