Crystal Palace skipper Milivojevic: We weren’t clinical enough against Brighton

Luka Milivojevic admitted that his Crystal Palace should have been more “clinical” in their finishing against Brighton and believed they deserved three points from their dominant performance.

The South Londoners took the lead in the fierce rivalry game through Wilfried Zaha after the academy graduate, who was playing his 400th game for the club, slotted home a first-half penalty that Conor Gallagher won.

Patrick Vieira’s side continued to be the dominant force in the second half, too, with the Eagles having multiple opportunities to wrap up all three points, especially when Jordan Ayew was played through one-on-one with Robert Sanchez.

Graham Potter’s side stole a point with the last kick of the match when Neal Maupay latched on to a Joel Veltman clearance and chipped Vicente Guaita to deny Palace all three points.

“The performance was good. Tonight we deserved three points, but that’s football,” said Eagles captain Milivojevic.

“Every single situation is different, and as a group, we should stop that one, so we don’t concede in the last second. In general, the performance was good, and we can be happy with how we performed, but football has to be played until the last second. We had our chances to kill the game. We weren’t clinical enough.

“We’ve been dominant for most of the game, but as I said, we had chances to score the second and finish the game. When you don’t convert your chances, you can be punished. We put a lot of pressure on them, took the ball high up the pitch, which is something we want to do, but we should be more clinical.

“No one is happy because we think with the performance and the energy with the fans behind us we deserved three points. We were a bit naive, but that’s okay, we have the next game and we have to continue.”

Milivojevic, who replaced Cheikhou Kouyate in the starting line-up, was making his first start of the season under Vieira after the Serbian midfielder missed the beginning of the campaign for personal reasons.

He said: “I think I did well – 70 minutes. Physically, at the moment, I am not the best to play a full game, but these minutes are going to help a lot, and I am happy with how I performed – just not happy with the points tonight. I will continue to do my best.”

Milivojevic started alongside James Mcarthur and Gallagher in the midfield trio and praised the Chelsea loanee following the match.

“His energy and what he gives to the team is amazing, as well as his quality,” said Milivojevic. “He can give you a mix of everything, so (I am) very pleased to have him in the team.”