Getafe 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 1

Malick Yalcouye fired Brighton and Hove Albion to a 1-0 win in their Europa Conference League clash with Getafe in Madrid tonight (Thursday 5 November).

The Ivory Coast international scored his fourth goal of the season to break the deadlock in a hard-fought encounter.

It was Brighton’s first competitive fixture in Spain and the hosts had mischievously dubbed their Estadio Coliseum ground “Getamford Bridge” for the occasion.

Yalcouye scored at the real Stamford Bridge in August. That match ended in a 4-3 defeat to Chelsea but this time he could savour Brighton’s second victory in Europe this season.

The Seagulls are now the only team not to concede a goal in the Conference League so far and their seven points from three matches puts them fifth in the table.

Albion boss Fabian Hürzeler made five changes to the side which beat Manchester City at the weekend. Yalcouye joined Jaouen Hadjam, Michael Svobada, Jack Hinshelwood and Georginio Rutter in the starting line-up.

With the Getafe stadium undergoing renovation, only 570 Brighton fans could attend, squeezed into a small corner of the north stand behind one of the goals.

They had a good view of Hinshelwood taking the first shot of the match, a 25-yard drive tipped wide by Getafe keeper David Soria.

Rutter then rolled defender Sebastian Boselli but skewed his shot across goal and wide.

They threatened again when Hadjam got in behind, only to lose his footing when he tried to cut back inside, with Rutter unable to convert the loose ball.

Brighton were almost caught out from a Getafe corner on the half-hour mark, with Bart Verbruggen forced into a sharp reaction save from Ivan Azon’s snap-shot.

The Seagulls should have scored when Rutter’s through-ball sent Hadjam racing clean through.

Hadjam got to the ball before Soria but his finish clipped the keeper and came back off a post, with Yalcouye’s attempt from the rebound blocked on the line.

Azon threatened the Brighton goal again in first-half stoppage time but was once again denied by Verbruggen.

After the break, some good build-up play from Rutter and Hadjam set up substitute Luka Vuskovic but his shot was always curling away from the target.

The breakthrough came in the 64th minute when Pascal Gross lifted a diagonal ball towards the far post.

Overlapping full-back Costinha had acres of space on the right of the penalty area and cushioned his header back across goal.

Yalcouye’s timing was impeccable as he met the ball with a thumping header which flew past Soria and in off the crossbar.

Ibrahim Osman could have doubled the lead seconds after coming on but he could not make contact with Diego Gomez’s low cross.