Brighton and Hove Albion 1 Marseille 0
A cracking late goal from Joao Pedro gave Brighton victory over Marseille and ensured the Seagulls finished atop Group B in the Europa League.
The record club signing looked worth every penny of his reported £30 million transfer fee as he smashed in a superb winner in the 89th minute.
And his goal kept alive the fairytale for Albion fans as a memorable debut season of competitive European football just got even better.
Simon Adingra was offered the match’s first chance in the seventh minute when he skipped in from the right to curl powerlessly towards Pau Lopez.
One of the storylines of the game was Joao Pedro versus Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with the pair the joint top scorers of the Europa League group stage with five strikes each.
Joao Pedro always looked likelier to bolster his numbers as he had three half-decent first-half opportunities.
First, the Brazilian was unable to control the pace of Jack Hinshelwood’s drilled cross and blazed over. Then he had an overhead kick blocked at point-blank range, before twisting on to his left foot and scuffing the ball towards Lopez.
At the other end, the former Arsenal and Chelsea hitman Aubameyang was kept anonymous by Lewis Dunk, who impressed in front of England manager Gareth Southgate.
Kaoru Mitoma also muddied Lopez’s gloves but caused little worry for the Spaniard.
In fact, the closest either side came to a first-half opener was when Clauss found a pocket of space on the edge of the Brighton box in the 15th minute.
The full-back’s shot looped up off Pascal Gross and over a stranded Jason Steele but, fortunately for Brighton, on to the underside of the bar.
Marseille stuck the frame of the goal again after the break as midfielder Harit fashioned himself space in a crowded box to smash against the base of the post.
Billy Gilmour tried his luck from range and Adingra’s knack of slipping at inopportune moments had him strike over twice.
The final 20 minutes saw the end of any pretence that Marseille were trying to attack as they parked 11 players behind the ball – and it came back to haunt them.
Albion substitute Evan Ferguson found a pocket of space in the box but the Irishman could not keep his shot down.
But moments later Joao Pedro notched his sixth goal of the competition with an emphatic finish from just inside the box into the top corner after collecting the ball from Gross.
Roberto De Zerbi, desperate to avoid an extra round, jumped into a section of the home fans to the side of his technical areas as the Amex erupted.
This moment was 122 years in the making and, while Joao Pedro provided the finish, the result was once again the product of a fantastic all-round team performance.
Go on Brighton.
Weird how nobody is reporting on the violent outbursts from Marseille fans in the city centre and the squads of riot police that were deployed to control them.