Roberto De Zerbi would love nothing more than watching his ‘legend’ captain Lewis Dunk playing in the Euros this summer.
The head coach was full of praise for his inspirational skipper after he headed the stoppage-time goal that earned Albion a 1-1 draw against Everton at the Amex on Saturday.
“I hope he can play in the Euros, because I would like to go to Germany to watch him and Pascal Gross,” said De Zerbi. “He is playing very well, especially in this last part of the season. At the beginning of the season he suffered an injury but now he is playing very well.
“Lewis is a legend. He is not just captain of Brighton, and he deserves everything from the fans and the club. I think he could play at a different level and his level is Champions League.”
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Dunk scored for the second successive game at the Amex and felt it might turn out to be an important point at the end of the season after Albion played for 18 minutes at the end with ten men when Billy Gilmour was sent off.
Reflecting on the game, the skipper said: “It’s mixed emotions, we had some good opportunities when it was 11 v 11 but they are a good side and were tough to break down and are good at what they do.
“But we’ve got that ability to fight back and show a good mentality – when we got the goal we got the ball quickly because we wanted to score again. Hopefully it’s a good point in the end, but we have to find that next step and punish teams when we are dominating games.”