Beto’s late strike rescues point for Everton in Brighton thriller

Beto struck deep into stoppage time to earn Everton a dramatic 1-1 draw away to Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League on Saturday, Sport360NG reports.

The visitors appeared set for defeat after Pascal Gross marked his return to Brighton with a second-half opener, but Everton substitute Beto had the final say with a 97th-minute equaliser to silence the Amex Stadium.

Making a late cameo on his 27th birthday, the Guinea-Bissau international reacted quickest after Jake O’Brien’s effort was saved by goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, turning in the rebound to snatch a point for David Moyes’ side.

The draw leaves Everton eighth in the table on 34 points, while Brighton remain 13th, three points adrift.

Brighton dominated the opening exchanges of a largely uneventful first half, enjoying the bulk of possession and registering seven attempts on goal before the interval. Their best chance arrived in the 18th minute when Kaoru Mitoma exchanged passes with Danny Welbeck before poking narrowly wide with Jordan Pickford beaten.

Everton struggled to create chances before the break and failed to register a single shot, but emerged with renewed intent after half-time.

Verbruggen was forced into a sharp save in the 67th minute to deny Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from close range after Thierno Barry capitalised on a loose back pass and set up the midfielder. Moments later, Everton came close again when James Tarkowski’s header from a corner was blocked on the line, inadvertently by team-mate O’Brien.

The miss proved costly as Brighton broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute. Gross, who recently returned from Borussia Dortmund, timed his run to perfection to meet Yasin Ayari’s cross and finish confidently.

Brighton, however, were unable to see out the contest. For the second consecutive league game, they conceded in stoppage time, with Beto pouncing after Verbruggen could only push O’Brien’s shot into his path. A VAR review checked for possible offside interference by Tarkowski, but the goal stood.

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Everton arrived on the south coast under a cloud after confirmation that Jack Grealish is expected to miss the remainder of the season through injury. There was, however, encouragement for Moyes in the returns of Dewsbury-Hall and Jarrad Branthwaite to the starting line-up.

Dewsbury-Hall, sidelined since December with a hamstring issue, had been influential earlier in the campaign, while Branthwaite made his first start of the season in central defence.

Although striker Thierno Barry struggled to make an impact in a subdued first half, Everton’s improvement after the interval was clear. They recorded seven shots in the second half, four on target, and were arguably unfortunate to fall behind against the run of play.

Crucially, the visitors showed resilience to recover late on, extending an impressive away run that has now yielded four wins, two draws and just one defeat in their last seven matches.

Everton return home buoyed by the result, just two points behind rivals Liverpool and four off the Champions League places, while Brighton are left to reflect on another late lapse that denied them a valuable victory.