Leeds 0-2 Brighton: Sami Hyypia earns first victory as boss of Seagulls
Mail 19/8/14Brighton achieve first Championship win of the season with 2-0 victory against Leeds
Sami Hyypia enjoys first league victory as Brighton boss
Joao Teixeira gave Brighton the lead after five minutes
By CRAIG HOPE
Sami Hyypia has former Liverpool team-mate Steven Gerrard to thank for his first league victory in English football.
The Brighton boss spoke to Gerrard about 21-year-old Reds playmaker Joao Teixeira last week and the Portuguese duly headed south on a season-long loan deal.
Teixeira – signed from Sporting Lisbon for £830,000 in 2012 – made his first start at Elland Road last night and was on target as he inspired Hyypia’s pointless side to a much-needed win.
The ex-Liverpool defender was already under pressure having opened the season with back-to-back 1-0 losses against Sheffield Wednesday and Birmingham.
A conversation with Gerrard, however, helped change that and, on this evidence, Teixeira could well have a first-team future at Anfield when he returns next summer.
And Hyypia said: ‘Joao is still young and can improve and hopefully we are the stepping stone to the first eleven at Liverpool. He showed tonight he can really play football.
‘I’m grateful that Liverpool let him come here and hopefully it works both ways – we’ve got a quality player on our hands and we hope he can play many games - that would also suit Liverpool.
‘He would not have got much time on the pitch (at Liverpool). He needs to play games to improve. I’m very happy to have him here.’
The game was only five minutes old when livewire Teixeira broke the deadlock, Bruno Slater springing him clear and he defied a narrow angle to slide across Marco Silvestri and into the bottom corner.
The Portugal Under-21 youngster was at the heart of everything good about his side during the early exchanges and, after wriggling free of two white shirts inside the area, he teed up Craig Mackail-Smith only for his shot to cannon into a defender.
The Seagulls should have doubled their advantage before the break but the unmarked Inigo Calderon headed over at the far post having been located by Adam Chicksen’s left-wing delivery. That chance – effortlessly fashioned by Brighton – drew boos from a frustrated home crowd.
But Leeds should have been level after the break when the energetic Sam Byram - a reported target of Liverpool - broke clear down the right and drew back to Billy Sharp, lurking on the penalty spot. The former Southampton man had the whole goal to aim at but fired straight at the sliding Calderon, much to the angst of the Elland Road fans.
That allowed substitute Kazenga LuaLua to make sure of Hyypia’s first points of the season when he smashed home a late free-kick.
And Hyypia - appointed in June having been sacked by Bayer Leverkusen in April – reflected: ‘We showed what we can do, especially in the first half.
‘But we had to dig in and keep our concentration on the defensive side. I was very happy that we kept a clean sheet.
‘If you want to play football you need good footballers on the field. I was a defender so I don’t know if it’s strange I want to play this way, but that’s what I like.
‘I think we can take a lot of confidence from this performance and I hope we can play our way out of the Championship. I think the players will enjoy playing this way.’
Meanwhile, Leeds manager Dave Hockaday said: ‘I can’t tell you how disappointed I was with the first half. We didn’t work together and we gave the ball away cheaply.
‘We gave it a go in the second half but lacked a cutting edge.’